Bird watching

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BIRD WATCHING

BY

EDMUND SELOUS

LONDON

J. M. DENT & CO., ALDINE HOUSE

29 & 30 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.
1901

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CONTENTS

CHAP. PACK

I. WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC. ... 3
II. WATCHING RINGED PLOVERS, REDSHANKS,

PEEWITS, ETC 21

III. WATCHING STOCKDOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS,

SNIPE, ETC 35

IV. WATCHING WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS,

OYSTER-CATCHERS, ETC 67

V. WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS ... 96
VI. WATCHING RAVENS, CURLEWS, EIDER-
DUCKS, ETC 129

VII. WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS . . 163

VIII. WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK . 199

IX. WATCHING BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS . 225

X. WATCHING ROOKS 257

XI. WATCHING ROOKS— CONTINUED . .274

XII. WATCHING BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES,

SAND-MARTINS, ETC 301

INDEX 338

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Male Oyster-catchers piping to the Female . . Frontispiece

Photogravure

Dancing of Great Plovers in Autumn . facing page 12

Photogravure

Great Plovers : A Nuptial Pose . . . Page 19

Master and Pupil ': Hooded-Crow flying with Peewits „ 29
Stock-Doves : A Duel with Ceremonies . . ,,40

Turtle Doves: The Nuptial Flight facing page 50

Photogravure

Great Skuas: Nuptial Flight and Pose . „ „ 101

Photogravure

Ravens: The Game of Reversi . . . Page 135

Habet! Great-crested Grebe attacked by another

under water ..... n 150

Love on a Rock: Shags during the breeding

season ..... facing page 168

Photogravure

On a Guillemot-ledge . . . „ „ 192

Fairy Artillery : Willow-Warbler pecking catkins

inflight Page 254

Rooks: A Winter Scene . ,, 279

In a Sand-pit .... facing page 329

Photogravure

All the above from Drawings by J. Smit.

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PREFACE

I SHOULD like to explain that this work, being,
with one or two insignificant exceptions, a record of
my own observations only, it has not been my in-
tention to make general statements in regard to the
habits of any particular bird. In practice, however,
it is often difficult to write as if one were not doing
this, without its having a very clumsy effect One
cannot, for instance, always say, " I have seen birds
fly." One has to say, upon occasions, "Birds fly."
Moreover, it is obvious that in much of the more
important business of bird -life, one would be fully
justified in arguing from the particular to the general :
perhaps (though this is not my opinion) one would
always be. But, whether this is the case or not, I
wish it to be understood that, throughout, a remark
that any bird acts in such or such a way means, merely,
that I have, on one or more occasions, seen it do so.
Also, all that I have seen which is included in this
volume was noted down by me either just after it
had taken place or whilst it actually was taking place ;
the quotations (except when literary or otherwise ex-
plicitly stated) being always from my own notes so
made. For this reason I call my work " Bird Watch-
ing," and I hope that the title will explain, and even
justify, a good deal which in itself is certainly a want

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x PREFACE

and a failing. One cannot, unfortunately, watch all
birds, and of those that one can it is difficult not to
say at once too little and too much: too little, be-
cause one may have only had the luck to see well a
single point in the round of activities of any species
— one feather in its plumage, so to speak — and too
much, because even to speak of this adequately is to
fill many pages and deny space to some other bird.
All I can do is to speak of some few birds as I have
watched them in some few things. Those who read
this preface will, I hope, expect nothing more, and
I hope that not much more is implied in the title
which I have chosen. Perhaps I might have been
more explicit, but English is not German. " Of-some-
few - birds - the- occasional -in-some-things- watching "
does not seem to go well as a compound, and " Ob-
servations on," etc., sounds as formidable as "Beo-
bachtungen liber." It matters not how one may
limit it, the word "Observations" has a terrific
sound. Let a man say merely that he watched
a robin (for instance) doing something, and no one
will shrink from him; but if he talks about his
"Observations on the Robin -Redbreast" then, let
these have been ever so restricted, and even though
he may forbear to call the bird by its Latin name,
he must expect to pay the penalty. The very
limitations will have something severe — smacking of
precise scientific distinction — about them, and the
implied preference for English in such a case will
appear affected and to be a clumsy attempt, merely,

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PREFACE xi

to make himself pppular. Therefore, I will not call
my book "Observations on," etc. I have watched
birds only, I have not observed them. It is true that,
in the text itself, I do not shrink from the latter word,
either as substantive or verb, or even from the Latin
name of a bird, here and there, when I happen to
know it (for is there not such a thing as childish
pride?). But that is different. I do not begin at
once in that way, and by the time I get to it anyone
will have found me out, and know that I am really
quite harmless. Besides, I have now set matters in
their right light But I was not going to handicap
myself upon my very cover and trust to its contents,
merely, for getting over it That would have been
over-confidence.

Again, in the following pages there are some
points which I just touch upon and leave with an
undertaking to go more fully into, in a subsequent
chapter. This I have always meant to do, but want
of space has, in some instances, prevented me from
carrying out my intention. For this, I will apologise
only, leaving it to my readers to excuse me should
they think fit. Perhaps they will do so very readily.

Also, — but I cannot afford to point out any more
of my shortcomings. That, too, I must leave to " the
reader," who, I hope, will in this matter but little
deserve that epithet of "discerning" which is often
so generously — not to say boldly — bestowed upon
him.

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BIRD WATCHING

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CHAPTER I
Watching Great Plovers, etc

IF life is, as some hold it to be, a vast melancholy
ocean over which ships more or less sorrow-laden
continually pass and ply, yet there lie here and there
upon it isles of consolation on to which we may step
out and for a time forget the winds and waves. One
of these we may call Bird-isle — the island of watching
and being entertained by the habits and humours of
birds — and upon this one, for with the others I have
here nothing to do, I will straightway land, inviting
such as may care to, to follow me. I will speak of
birds only, or almost only, as I have seen them, and
I must hope that this plan, which is the only one I
have found myself able to follow, will be accepted as
an apology for the absence of much which, not having
seen but only read of, I therefore say nothing about
3

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4 BIRD WATCHING

Also, if I sometimes here record what has long been
known and noted as though I were making a dis-
covery, I trust that this, too, will be forgiven me, for,
in fact, whenever I have watched a bird and seen it
do anything at all — anything, that is, at all salient —
that is just how I have felt Perhaps, indeed, the
best way to make discoveries of this sort is to have
the idea that one is doing so. One looks with the
soul in the eyes then, and so may sometimes pick
up some trifle or other that has not been noted
before.

However this may be, one of the most delightful
birds (for one must begin somewhere) to find, or to
think one is finding things out about, is the great or
Norfolk plover, or, as it is locally and more rightly
called — for it is a curlew and not a plover* — the
stone-curlew. These birds haunt open, sandy wastes
to which but the scantiest of vegetation clings, and
here, during the day, they assemble in some chosen
spot, often in considerable numbers — fifty or more I
have sometimes seen together. If it is early in the
day, and especially if the weather be warm and sunny,
most of them will be sitting, either crouched down
on their long yellow shanks, or more upright with
these extended in front of them, looking in this
latter attitude as if they were standing on their
stumps, their legs having been "smitten off" and
lying before them on the ground. Towards evening,
however — which is the best time to watch these birds
— they stand attending to their plumage, or walk with
picked steps in a leisurely fashion, which, with their
lean gaunt figure, sad and rusty coloured, and a

* I understand Professor Newton to say this.

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC. 5

certain sedateness, almost punctiliousness, of manner,
fancifully suggests to one the figure of Don Quixote
de la Mancha, the Knight of the rueful counten-
ance, with a touch or two, perhaps, thrown in of
the old Baron of Bradwardine of Tullyveolan. One
can lie on the ground and watch them from far off
through the glasses, or, should a belt of bracken
fringe the barren area, one has then an excellent
opportunity of creeping up to within a short or, at
least, a reasonable distance. To do this one must
make a wide circuit and enter the bracken a long
way off. Then having walked, or rather waded for
some way towards them, at a certain point — experi-
ence will teach the safety-line — one must sink on
one's hands and knees, and the rest is all creeping
and wriggling, till at length, lying flat, one's face just
pierces the edge of the cover and the harmless glasses
are levelled at the quarry one does not wish to kill.
The birds are standing in a long, straggling line,
ganglion-like in form, swelling out into knots where
they are grouped more thickly with thinner spaces
between. As they preen themselves — twisting the
neck to one or the other side so as to pass the
primary quill feathers of the wings through the beak
— one may be seen to stoop and lay one side of the
head on the ground, the great yellow eye of the other
side staring up into the sky in an uncanny sort of
way. The meaning of this action I do not know.
It is not to scratch the head, for the head is held
quite still ; and, moreover, as, like most birds, they can
do this very neatly and effectively with the foot, other
methods would seem to be superfluous. Again, and
this is a more characteristic action, one having stood

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6 BIRD WATCHING

for some time upright and perfectly still, makes a
sudden and very swingy bob forward with the head,
the tail -at the same time swinging up, just in the
way that a wooden bird performs these actions upon
one's pulling a string. This again seems to have no
special reference to anything, unless it be deportment
All at once a bird makes a swift run forward, not
one of those short little dainty runs — one and then
another and another, with little start-stops between —
that one knows so well, but a long, steady run down
upon something, and at the same moment the glasses
— if one is lucky and the distance not too great —
reveal the object which has occasioned this, a delicate
white thing floating in the air which one takes to be
a thistle-down. This is secured and eaten, and we
may imagine that the bird's peckings at it after it is
in his possession are to disengage the seed from the
down. But all at once — before you have had time to
set down the glasses and make the note that the great
plover (CEdicnemus Crepitans) will snap at a wandering
thistle-down, and having separated the delicate little
seed-sails from the seed, eat the latter, etc., etc. — a
small brown moth comes into view flying low over a
belt of dry bushy grass that helps, with the bracken,
to edge the sandy warren, for these wastes are given
over to rabbits and large landowners, and are marked
" warrens " on the map. Instantly the same bird (who
seems to catch sight of the moth just as you do) starts
in pursuit with the same rapid run and head stretched
eagerly out He gets up to the moth and essays to
catch it, pecking at it in a very peculiar way, not
excitedly or wildly, but with little precise- pecks, the
head closely and guardedly following the moth's

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC. 7

motions, the whole strongly suggestive of professional
skill. The moth eludes him, however, and the bird
stops rigidly, having apparently lost sight of it
Shortly afterwards, after it has flown some way, he
sees it again and makes another swift run in pursuit,
catching it up again and making his quick little pecks,
but unsuccessfully, as before. Then there is the same
pause, followed by the same run, then a close, near
chase, and finally the moth is caught and eaten.
Other moths, or other insects, now appear upon the
scene, or if they do not appear — for even with the
best of glasses such pin-points are mostly invisible —
it is evident from the actions of the birds that they
are there. Chase after chase is witnessed, all made
in the same manner, with sometimes a straight-up
jump into the air at the end and a snap that one
seems almost to hear — a last effort, but which, judging
by the bird's demeanour afterwards, fails, as last efforts
usually do.

A social feeling seems to pervade these hunting-
scenes, a sort of " Have you got one ? / have. That
bird over there's caught two" idea. This may be
imaginary, still the whole scene with its various little
incidents suggests it to one. The stone - curlew,
therefore, besides his more ordinary food of worms,
slugs, and the like — I have seen him in company
with peewits, searching for worms, much as do
thrushes on the lawn — is likewise a runner down
and "snapper up of" such "unconsidered trifles"
as moths and other insects on the wing. I had seen
him chasing them, indeed, long before I knew what
he was doing, for I had connected those sudden,
racing runs — seen before from a long distance — with

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8 BIRD WATCHING

something or other on the ground, imagining a fresh
object for each run. Often had I wondered, first at
the eyesight of the bird, which seemed to pierce the
mystery of a worm or beetle at fifty or sixty yards
distance, and then at its apparent want of interest
each time it got to the place where it seemed to have
located it Really it had but just lost sight of what
it was pursuing, but aerial game had not occurred
to me, and the tell-tale spring into the air, which
would have explained all, had been absent on these
occasions. I have called such leaps "last efforts/'
but I am not quite sure if they are always the last
More than once I have thought I have seen a stone-
curlew rise into the air from running after an insect,
and continue the pursuit on the wing. This is a
point which I would not press, yet birds often act
out of their usual habits and assume those proper
to other species. I remember once towards the close
of a fine afternoon, when the air was peopled by a
number of minute insects, and the stone - curlews
had been more than usually active in their chasings,
a large flock of starlings came down upon the warrens
and began to behave much as they were doing,
running excitedly about in the same manner and
evidently with the same object But what interested
me especially was that they frequently rose into the
air, pursuing and, as I feel sure, often catching the
game there, turning and twisting about like fly-
catchers, though with less graceful movements. Often,
too, whilst flying — fairly high — from one part of the
warrens to another, they would deflect their course
in order to catch an insect or two en passant I
observed this latter action first, and doubted the

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC. 9

motive, though it was strongly suggested. After
seeing the quite unmistakable fly -catcher actions I
felt more assured as to the other. Yet one may
watch starlings for weeks without seeing them pursue
an insect in the air. Their usual manner of feeding
is widely different — viz. by repeatedly probing and
searching the ground with their sharp spear -like
bills, as does a snipe (with which bird they will some-
times feed side by side) with his longer and more
delicate one. This is well seen whilst watching them
on a lawn. They do not study to find worms lying
in the holes and then seize them suddenly as do
thrushes and blackbirds. With them it is "blind
hookey"; each time the beak is thrust down into
the grass it may find something or it may not The
mandibles are all the time working against each other,
evidently searching and biting at the roots of the
grass, and at intervals, but generally somewhat long
ones, they will be withdrawn, holding within their
grasp a large, greyish grub.

Returning to the stone-curlews. During the day,
as I have said, these birds are idle and lethargic —
sitting about, dozing, often, or sleeping — but as the
air cools and the shadows fall, they rouse into a glad
activity, and coming down and spreading themselves
over the wide space of the warrens, they begin to
run excitedly about, raising and waving their wings,
leaping into the air, and often making little flights,
or rather flittings, over the ground as a part of the
disport As a part of it I say advisedly, for they
do not stop and then fly, and on alighting recom-
mence, but the flight arises out of the wild waving
and running, and this is resumed, without a pause, as

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io BIRD WATCHING

the bird again touches the ground. All about now
over the warrens their plaintive, wailing notes are
heard, notes that seem a part of the deepening gloom
and sad sky ; for nature's own sadness seems to speak
in the voice of these birds. They swell and subside
and swell again as they are caught up and repeated
in different places from one bird to another, and often
swell into a full chorus of several together. Deeper
now fall the shadows, " light thickens," till one catches,
at last, only "dreary gleams about the moorland,"
as now here, now there, the wings are flung up —
showing the lighter coloured inner surface — till
gradually, first one and then another, or by twos or
threes or fours, the birds fly off into the night,
wailing as they go. But this note on the wing is
not the same as that uttered whilst running over
the ground. The ground -note is much more drawn
out, and a sort of long, wailing twitter — called the
"clamour" — often precedes and leads up to the final
wail. In the air it comes just as a wail without
this preliminary. But it must not be supposed that
all the birds perform these antics simultaneously. If
they did the effect would be more striking, but it is
generally only a few at a time over a wide space,
or, at most, some two or three together — as by
sympathy — that act so. The eye does not catch
more than a few gleams — some three or four or five
— of the flung-up wings at one time over the whole
space. It is a gleam here and a gleam there in
the deepening gloom. "Dreary gleams about the
moorland" — for warren, here, purples into moor and
moor saddens into warren — is, indeed, a line that
exactly describes the effect

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC. u

These birds, then, stand or sit about during the
day in their chosen places of assemblage, and, if not
occupied in catching insects or preening themselves,
they are dull and listless. But as the evening falls
and the air cools, they cast off their lassitude, think
of the joys of the night, there is dance and song
for a little, and then forth they fly. Sad and
wailing as are their notes to our ears, they are no
doubt anything but so to the birds themselves, and
as the accompaniment of what seems best described
by the word " dance " may, perhaps, fairly be called
" song." The chants of some savages whilst dancing,
might sound almost as sadly to us, pitched, as they
would be, in a minor key, and with little which we
would call an air. Again, if one goes by the bird's
probable feelings, which may not be so dissimilar to
the savage's — or indeed to our own — on similar
occasions "song" and "dance" seems to be a legiti-
mate use of words.

But whatever anyone may feel inclined to call
this performance — " dance " or " antics " or " display "
— it varies very much in quality, being sometimes
so poor that it is difficult to use words about it
without seeming to exaggerate, and at other times
so fine and animated, that were the birds as large
as ostriches, or even as the great bustard, much would
be said and written on the subject Moreover, so
many variations and novelties and little personal
incidents are to be noticed on the different occasions,
that any general description must want something.
I will therefore give a particular one of what I wit-
nessed one afternoon when the dancing was especially
good. It was about 5.30 when I got to the edge

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12 BIRD WATCHING

of the bracken, which to some extent rings round
the birds' place of assembly.

"A drizzling rain soon began, and this increased
gradually, but not beyond a smart drizzle. The
birds, as though stimulated by the drops, now began
to come down from where they had been standing
on the edge of the amphitheatre, and to spread all
over it till there were numbers of them, and dancing
of a more pronounced, or, at least, of a more violent
kind than I had yet seen, commenced. Otherwise
it was quite the same, but the extra degree of ex-
citement made it much more interesting. It was,
in fact, remarkable and extraordinary. Running
forward with wings extended and slightly raised,
a bird would suddenly fling them high up, and then,
as it were, pitch about over the ground, waving and
tossing them, stopping short, turning, pitching forward
again, leaping into the air, descending and continuing,
till, with another leap, it would make a short eccentric
flight low over the ground, coming down in a sharp
curve and then, at once, nteme Jeu. I talk of their
'pitching* about, because their movements seemed
at times hardly under control, and, each violent run
or plunge ending, in fact, with a sudden pitch forward
of the body, the wings straggling about (often pointed
forward over the head) in an uncouth dislocated sort
of way, the effect was as if the birds were being blown
about over the ground in a violent wind. They
seemed, in fact, to be crazy, and their sudden and
abrupt return, after a few mad moments, to pro-
priety and decorum, had a curious, a bizarre effect
Though having just seen them behave so, one seemed
almost to doubt that they had. One bird that had

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC. 13

come to within a moderate distance of me, made three
little runs — advancing, retiring, and again advancing
— all the time with wings upraised and waving, then
took a short flight over the ground, describing the
segment of a circle, and, on alighting, continued as
before. Half-a-dozen others were gathered together
under a solitary crab-apple tree — a rose in the desert
— less than 100 yards off, and both with the naked
eye and the glasses I observed them all thoroughly
well One of them would often run at or pursue
another with these antics. I saw one that was stand-
ing quietly, caught and, as it were, covered up in
a little storm of wings before it could run away
and begin waving its own.

" This and the general behaviour of the group makes
it evident that the birds are stimulated in their dance-
antics by each other's presence. For these little chases
were in sport, clearly, not anger. Very different is
the action and demeanour of two birds about to
fight This is by far the finest display of the sort
that I have yet seen, and must be due, I think, to
the rain, which the birds obviously enjoyed. They
had been quite dull and listless before, but as soon
as it fell they spread themselves over the plateau,
and the dancing began. It was not only when the
birds threw up their wings and, as one may say,
let themselves go, that they seemed excited. The
constant quick running and stopping whilst the
wings were folded appeared to me to be a part
— the less excited part — of the general emotion
out of which the sudden frenzies arose. There was
also the usual vocal accompaniment The wailing
note went up, and was caught and repeated from

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H BIRD WATCHING

one part to another at greater or lesser intervals,
the whole ending in flight as before."

When I first saw these dances I thought that they
arose out of the excitement of the chase — that chase
of moths or other insects flying low over the ground
which I have noticed — that they were hunting-dances,
in fact I thought the motions of the wings were
to beat down the escaping quarry, and I confounded
the little springs and leaps into the air, arising out
of the dance and being a part of it, with those other
ones made with a snap and an object not to be
mistaken; but I soon discovered my error. Insect-
hunting is only indulged in occasionally, when a
wandering moth or so happens to fly by. The general
hunt which I have described was incident, I think,
to an unusually large number of insects in the air
over the warrens, by which not only a band of starlings
— as before mentioned — was attracted, but, afterwards,
swallows and martins. On such occasions, dancing
might conceivably grow out of the excitement of the
chase, so as to appear a part of it, but though the two
forms of excitement may sometimes intermingle, the
tendency would probably be for the one to diminish
and interfere with the other. At any rate, almost
every dance which I have witnessed has been a dance
pure and simple.

What, then, is the meaning of this dancing, of
these strange little sudden gusts of excitement
arising each day at about the same time and lasting
till the birds fly away? We have here a social
display as distinct from a nuptial or sexual one,
for it is in the autumn that these assemblages of the
great plovers take place, after the breeding is all

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC 15

over; the deportment of the courting or paired
birds towards each other — their nuptial antics — is
of a different character. With birds, as with men,
all outward action must be the outcome of some
mental state. What kind of mental excitement is
it which causes the stone-curlews to behave every
evening in this mad, frantic way? I believe that
it is one of expectancy and making ready, that
these odd antics — the mad running and leaping and
waving of the wings — give expression to the anti-
cipation of going and desire to be gone which begins
to possess the birds as evening falls. They are the
prelude to, and they end in, flight The two, in
fact, merge into each other, for short flights grow
out of the tumblings over the ground, and it is
impossible to say when one of these may not be
continued into the full flight of departure. They
are a part of the dance, and, as such, the birds may
almost be said to dance off. Surely in actions which
lead directly up to any event there must be an idea,
an anticipation of it, nor can the idea of departure
exist in a bird's mind (hardly, perhaps, in a man's)
except in connection with what it is departing for —
food, namely, in this case, a banquet So when I
say that these birds " think of the joys of the night "
need this be merely a figure? May it not be true
that they do so and dance forth each night, to
their joy?

I have said that the social or autumn antics of
the stone-curlews — their dances, as I have called
them, using the usual phraseology — are distinct from
the nuptial or courting ones which they indulge in
in the spring. These latter are of a different char-

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16 BIRD WATCHING

acter altogether, but much more interesting to see
than they are easy to describe. The birds are now
paired, or in process of becoming so, and it is
fashionable for two of them to wait side by side,
and very close together, with little gingerly steps, as
though "keeping company." They seem very much
en rapport with each other — sehr einig as the
Germans would say — also to have a mutual sense
of their own and each other's importance, of the
seemly and becoming nature of what they are doing,
and (this above all) of the great value of deportment
Something there is about them — now even more than
at other times — very odd, quaint, old-world, old-
fashioned. The last best describes it; they are
old-fashioned birds. Were the world occupied in
watching them, and were they occasionally to over-
hear themselves being talked about, they would
catch that word as often as did little Paul Dombey.
Whilst watching a couple walking side by side
in this way that I have described, one of them may
be seen to bend stiffly forward till the beak just
touches the ground, the tail and after part of the
body being elevated in the air. The other stands
by, and appears both interested in and edified by
the performance, and when it is over both walk on
as before. Or a bird may be seen to act thus whilst
walking alone, upon which another will come running
from some distance towards it, as though answering
to a summons or to some quite irresistible form of
appeal. Upon coming close up to the rigid bird this
other one stops, and turning suddenly, but also setly
and rigidly, round, makes a curious little run away
from it with lowered head and precise formal steps,

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC. 17

full of a peculiar gravity and importance. Having
thus played his part he again stops, and, standing
idly about, seems lapsed into indifference. Mean-
while, the rigid one having remained in its set attitude
for some little time longer at length comes out of it,
and advancing with the same little picked, careful,
gingerly steps that I have noticed, before long
assumes it again, and then, relaxing, crouches low
on the ground as though incubating. Having re-
mained thus for a minute or two it rises and stands
at ease. " A third bird now appears upon the scene
(for this, I must say, was a little witnessed drama),
advancing towards the two. As he approaches, one
of them — the one which has run up in response to
the appeal, and which I take to be the male —
becomes uneasy as recognising a rival. He first
either runs or walks (the pace, though it may be
quick, is solemn) to the female, and makes her some
kind of bow or obeisance of a very formal nature.
Then, straightening and turning, he instantly becomes
a different bird, so changed is his appearance. He
is now drawn up to his full height, with the head
thrown a little back, the tail is fanned out into the
shape of a scallop-shell (looking very pretty), the
broad, rounded end of which just touches the ground
at the centre, and thus 'set,' as it were, for action,
he advances upon the intruding bird with quick little
stilty steps, prepared, evidently, to do battle. The
would-be rival, however, retreats before this display,
and the accepted suitor, having followed him thus for
some little way — not rushing upon him or forcing a
combat, but more as gravely and seriously prepared for
one — turns and with his former formal pace goes back
B

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18 BIRD WATCHING

to his hen." Or shall we not, rather, say to his Dulcinea
del Toboso? for never does this strange, gaunt, solemn,
punctilious-looking bird, with the tall figure and the
strain of madness in the great glaring eyes 9 more re-
mind one — fancifully— of Cervante's creation than now.
Surely in that formal approach and deep reverence
to his mistress, before entering upon this, perhaps, his
first "emprise," we have the very figure and high
courteous action of the knight, and seem almost to
hear those words of his spoken on a similar occasion :
" Acorredme, seflora mia, en esta primera afrenta que
a este vuestro avasallado pecho se le ofrece; no me
desfallezca en este primera trance vuestro favor y
amparo." ("Sustain me, lady mine, in this first
insult offered to your captive knight Fail me not
with your favour and countenance in this my first
emprise.")

In the above case it was, presumably, the female
bird who assumed the curious rigid attitude, with the
tail raised and head stooped forward to the ground.
The attitude, however, assumed by the male, which I
have described as a bow or obeisance — and, indeed,
it has this appearance — was much of the same nature,
if it was not precisely the same, and as far as I have
been able to observe, none of the many and very
singular attitudes and posturings in which these birds
indulge are peculiar to either sex. At any rate, that
one which would seem par excellence to appertain to
courtship or matrimony, and which is often (as it
was in the instance I am about to give) immediately
followed by the actual pairing of the birds, is common
to both the male and the female. The following will
show this : — " A bird which has for some time been

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WATCHING GREAT PLOVERS, ETC 19

sitting now rises and shakes itself a little, presenting,
as it does so, a very ' mimsy ' and * borogovy ' appear-
ance (for which adjectives, with descriptive plate,
see 'Through the Looking-Glass '). It then begins
uttering that long, thin, * shrilling ' sound, which goes
so far and pierces the ear so pleasantly. This is
answered by a similar cry, quite near, and I now see,

Great Plovers: A Nuptial Pose

for the first time, another bird advancing quickly to
the calling one, who also advances to meet it They
approach each other, and standing side by side, with,
perhaps, a foot between them, but looking different
ways, each in the direction in which it has been
advancing, both of them assume, at the same time,
a particular and very curious posture, worth waiting
days to see. First they draw themselves tall-ly up on
their long, yellow, stilt-like legs, then curving the neck
with a slow and formal motion, they bend the head
downwards — yet still holding it at a height — and stop
thus, set and rigid, the beak pointing to the ground.

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20 BIRD WATCHING

Having stood like this for some seconds, they assume
the normal attitude. This wonderful pose, conceived
and made in a vein of stiff formality, but to which the
great, glaring, yellow eye gives a look of wildness,
almost of insanity, has in it, both during its develop-
ment and when its acme has been reached, something
quite per se % and in vain to describe. But again one
is reminded of what is past and old-fashioned, of
chivalry and knight-errantry, of scutcheons and
heraldic devices, of Don Quixote and the Baron of
Bradwardine."

It is not only when two birds are by themselves
that these or other attitudes are assumed. They will
often break out, so to speak, amongst three or four
birds running or chasing each other about. All at
once one will stop, stiffen into one of them — that
especially where the head is lowered till the beak
touches, or nearly touches, the ground — and remain
so for a formal period. But all such runnings and
chasings are, at this time, but a part of the business
of pairing, and one divines at once that such attitudes
are of a sexual character. The above are a few of the
gestures or antics of the great plover or stone-curlew
during the spring. I have seen others, but either
they were less salient, or, owing to the great distance,
I was not able to taste them properly, for which
reason, and on account of space, I will not further
dwell upon them. What I would again draw atten-
tion to, as being, perhaps, of interest, is that here we
have a bird with distinct nuptial (sexual) and social
(non-sexual) forms of display or antics, and that the
former as well as the latter are equally indulged in by
both sexes.

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Watching

Kinged Plovers
Redshanks
Peewits, etc,

XHE pretty little ring -plover {/Egicditis hiaticold)
belongs properly to the sea-shore, but he haunts and
breeds inland also, and is especially the companion of
the stone-curlew over the stony, sandy wastes that
they both love so well. These little birds have both
a nuptial flight and a courting action on the ground.
In the former a pair will keep crossing and recross-
ing as they scud about, or they will sweep towards
and then away from each other in the softest and
prettiest manner imaginable, or each will sweep first
up to a height and then swiftly down again and skim
quite low along the ground, thus delighting the eye
with the contrast Their flight is all in graceful
sweeps, for even when they beat the air with their
slender, pointed pinions, it is rather as though they
kissed than beat it, and they seem all the while to be
sweeping on without effort, so soft is their motion.

21

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22 BIRD WATCHING

Another salient feature is the varied direction of their
flight, for though this is in wide, spacious circles
around their chosen home, yet within this free limit
they set their sails to all points of the compass, veering
from one to another with so joyous a motion, each
change seems an ecstasy — as indeed it is to behold.
Their mode of alighting on the ground after flight is
very pretty, for they do so as if they meant to con-
tinue flying. Sometimes the wings are still raised,
still make their little spear-points in the air as they
softly stop ; or the bird will hold them drooped and
but half-spread, and skim like this, just above the
ground. At once he is on it, but there has been no
jerk, no pause. He has been smooth in abruptness :
settling suddenly, there has been no sudden motion.
These things are as magic, — they are, and yet they
cannot be. It is a contradiction, yet it has taken
place.

In formal courtship on the ground "the male ap-
proaches the female with head and neck drawn up
above the usual height, so that he presents for her
consideration a broader and fuller frontage of throat
and breast than upon ordinary occasions. He does
not raise or otherwise disport with his wings, but
through the glasses one can see that his little legs
— which now that he is more upright are less invisible
— are being moved in a rapid vibratory manner, whilst
he himself seems to be trembling, quivering with ex-
citement. The motion of the legs does not belong
to the gait, for the bird stands still whilst making it,
and then advances a few steps at a time, with little
pauses between each advance, during which the legs
are quivered." The legs of the ringed plover are of

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WATCHING RINGED PLOVERS, ETC. 23

a fine orange colour, and the male's drawing himself
up so as to display them more fully, and then
moving them quickly in this way before the female,
suggests that they are appreciated by her. But it
is not only the legs that are thus well exhibited.
By drawing up the head, the throat, in which soft
pure white and velvet black are boldly and richly
contrasted, as well as the little smudged pug face
and the bright orange-yellow bill, are all shown off
to advantage.

The wings, however, in the instance which I ob-
served and noted at the time, were kept closed. I
can hardly think this is always the case. If it is, it
may be because, though pretty enough — indeed lovely
to an appreciative human eye — they yet do not in
their colouring present anything like so bold and
salient an appearance as the parts mentioned, with
the display of which they might, perhaps, interfere,
though I confess I do not think they would.

With the redshank this is different, for "the red-
shank, when standing with wings folded, is a very
plain-looking bird, the whole of the upper surface
being of a drabby brown colour, and the under parts
not being seen to advantage. But as he rises in flight
all is changed, for the inner surface of his wings —
with, in a less degree, the whole under part of his
body — are of a delicate, soft, silky white, looking
silvery, almost, as the light falls upon it and causes
it to gleam. This, with an upper quill -margin of
bolder white on the wings, which, when they are
closed, is concealed, now catches the eye, and the
bird passes from insignificance into something almost
distinguished, like a homely face flashing into beauty

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24 BIRD WATCHING

by virtue of a smile and fine eyes." Now the male
redshank, when courting the female, makes the most
of his wings, whilst at the same time moving his legs
— which are coloured, as his name implies — in the
same manner as does the ringed plover. He did so at
any rate in the following instance. " The male bird,
walking up to the female, raises his wings gracefully
above his back. They are considerably elevated, and
for a little he holds them thus aloft merely, but soon,
drooping them to about half their former elevation,
he flutters them tremulously and gracefully as though
to please her. She, however, turned from him, walks
on, appearing to be busy in feeding. The male takes,
or affects to take, little notice of this repulse. He
pecks about, as feeding too, but in a moment or so
walks up to the hen again, and now, raising his wings
to the fluttering height only, flutters them tremulously
as before. She walks on a few steps and stops. He
again approaches and, standing beside her (both
being turned the same way), with his head and neck
as it were curved over her, again trembles his wings,
at the same time making a little rapid motion with
his red legs on the ground, as though he were walking
fast, yet not advancing." Now here (and this, if I
remember, was the case with the ringed plovers also)
the female did not appear to take much notice of
the male bird's behaviour. She was turned away
and, for some time, feeding. But it must not be
forgotten that the eyes of most birds are not set
frontally in the head as are ours, but on each side
of it, so that their range of clear vision must be
very much wider, probably including all parts except
directly behind them. They also turn the head

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WATCHING RINGED PLOVERS, ETC 25

about with the greatest ease, and the slightest turn
must be very effective. They would, therefore, often
see quite plainly whilst appearing to us not to be
noticing, and that the female should get the general
effect of the male's display is all that is required by
the theory of sexual selection — as conceived by
Darwin. Darwin has expressly said that he does
not imagine that the female birds consciously pick
out the -most adorned or best-displaying males, but
only that such males have a more exciting effect
upon them, which leads, practically, to their being
selected. But though he has said this, it seems
hardly ever to be remembered by the opponents of
his view who, in combating it, almost always raise
a picture of birds critically observing patterns and
colours, as we might stuffs in a shop. However,
having regard to the bower -birds, and especially
that species which makes an actual flower garden,
even this does not seem so absolutely impossible.
The fact is, we are too conceited. With regard to
the female bird sometimes, %s here, keeping turned
from the male while thus courted by him, this is, I
think, capable of explanation in a way not hostile
but favourable to the theory of sexual selection. At
any rate, in both these instances, " il faut rendre a
cela" either was, or seemed to be, the final con-
clusion of the female.

As the nuptial season approaches, the peewits
begin to "stand," singly or in pairs, about the low,
marshy land, or to fly " coo-ee-ing " over it " Coo-
00-00, hook-a-coo-ee, coo-ee," is their cry, far more,
to my ear, resembling this than the sound w pee-weet "
or " pee-wee-eet," as imitated in their name. At

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26 BIRD WATCHING

intervals one or another of them will make its peculiar
throw or somersault in the air. This, in its com-
pletest form, is a wonderful thing to behold, though
so familiar that no attention is paid to it The bird
in full flight — in a rushing torrent of sound and
motion — may be seen to partially close the wings,
and fall plumb as though it had been shot In a
moment or two, but often not before there has been
a considerable drop, the wings are again ^partially
extended, and the bird turns right head over heels.
Then, sweeping buoyantly upwards, sometimes almost
from the ground, it continues its flight as before.
Such a tumble as this is a fine specimen. They are
not all so abrupt and dramatic, but there is one point
common to them all, which is the impossibility of
saying exactly how the actual somersault is thrown.
Do these tumblings add to the charm of the peewit's
flight? To the charm, perhaps; certainly to the
wonder and interest, but hardly (unless we are never
to criticise nature) to the grace. The contrast is
too great, there is something of violence, almost of
buffoonery, about it It is as though the clown came
tumbling right into the middle of the transformation
scene.

As the birds sweep about, they begin to enter into
their bridal dances, pursuing each other with devious
flight, pausing, hanging stationary with flapping wings
one just above the other, then sweeping widely away
in opposite directions. Shortly afterwards they are
again flying side by side, or the sun, "in a wintry
smile," catches both the white breasts as they make
a little coquettish dart at each other. Then again
they separate, and again the joyous " coo-oo-oo, hook-

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WATCHING RINGED PLOVERS, ETC. 27

a-coo-ee, coo-ee " flits with them over marsh and moor.
Sometimes a bird will come flying alone, somewhat
low over the ground, in a hurrying manner, very fast,
and making a sound with the wings, as they beat
the air, which is almost like the puffing of an engine
— indeed, one may easily, sometimes, imagine a train
in the distance. As one watches him thus scudding
along, tilting himself as ever, now on one side, now
on another, all at once he will give a sharp turn as
if about to make one of his wide, sweeping circles,
but almost instantly he again reverses, and sweeps
on in the same direction as before. This trick adds
very much to the appearance, if not to the reality,
of speed, for the smooth, swift sweep, close following
the little abrupt twist back, contrasts with it and
seems the more fast-gliding in comparison. Or one
will fly in quick, small circles, several times repeated,
a little above the spot where he intends to alight,
descending, at last, in the very centre of his air-
drawn girdle with wonderful buoyancy.

A hooded crow now flies over the marsh, and is
pursued by first one and then another of the peewits.
There is little combination, nor does there seem much
of anger. It is more like a sport or a practical joke.
It is curious that the crow's flight has taken the char-
acter of the peewit's, for they sweep upwards and
downwards together, seeming like master and pupil.
I have never seen a crow fly so, uninfluenced, and
this, again, gives an amicable appearance. I have
seen a peewit malce continual sweeps down at a
hen pheasant as she stood in a wheat-field, striking
at her each time with its wings, in the air, obviously
not in play but in earnest The pheasant dodged, or

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28 BIRD WATCHING

tried to dodge, each time, and this lasted some while.
Here it seems very different ; and now again a com-
pact little flock of peewits is flying backwards and
forwards over the river with a hooded crow — not the
same bird but another — right amongst them. This
continues for some little time, till the peewits go
down on the margin, and the crow then flies into a
tree hard by. After a little interval the peewits fly
off again, and almost directly the crow is with them,
and again they fly backwards and forwards over the
water, for some time, as before. And again I note —
and this time it is still more marked and unmistakable
— that the crow is flying amongst the peewits exactly
as they fly. At least he is speaking French with
them "after ye school of Stratford — at-y-Bow," for
who flies exactly like a peewit but a peewit? But
he sweeps with them — now upwards, now downwards
— in smooth, gliding sweeps, a curious, rusty-looking,
black and grey patch in the midst of their gleaming
greens and whites. Yet he is a handsome bird too,
is the hooded crow, but not when he flies with
peewits. Now the peewits again go down, and the
crow straightway flies into another tree. Shortly
afterwards, a moor -hen, feeding on the grass, is
hustled by one of the peewits into the water. Here,
again, hostility was evident, whereas with the crow
I could see no trace of it He seemed to be enjoying
himself, whilst the peewits, on their part, showed no
objection to his company.

" Late in the afternoon there is a pause and hush.
The birds have ceased flying till dusk, and are either
standing still or walking over the ground. One I
can see motionless amidst the brown, tufted grass.

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No, not quite motionless. Ever and anon there
comes the strained, grating call -note of another
peewit, and then this one rears up the body and
jerks the head a little back, then jerks it flexibly
forward again. At first he does this in silence, but

Master and Pupil

soon answering the cry. You see the thin little black
bill divide as he bobs, and the sound comes out of
it as though drawn by a wira — so roopy and raspy
is it Now he can contain himself no longer, but
begins to walk about through the grass, making a
devious course, and uttering the call at intervals.
Very different is this note from the joyous, musical
'coo-oo-oo, hook-a-coo-ee, coo-ee.' Still, it is in

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30 BIRD WATCHING

harmony with nature, with the stillness, the sadness,
the loneliness. This standing or pacing about whilst
calling roopily, and, as it were, in a stealthy manner
to each other, should be a very prosaic affair, one
would think, for a pair of peewits after such glorious
flying, but, no doubt, there is some excitement in it
Perhaps it is thought a little fast, as some slow things
with us are, and hence the peculiar charm.

"Now these two birds are standing lazily on two
of the black molehills which are all about the marshy
land — some of them of a size beyond one's compre-
hension — and making the wire-drawn cry at intervals
to each other. Lazily they stand, lazily they utter
it, and seem as though they had taken up their
roosting - place for the night But when the night
falls they will be hurrying shadows in it, and their
cries will come out of the darkness, mingling with
the bleatings of the snipe."

There is a sameness and yet a constant difference
in the aerial sports and evolutions of peewits. It
is like a continual variation of the same air or a
recurrent thread of melody winding itself through
a labyrinth of ever - changing notes. Parts of the
melody are where two skim low over the ground in
rapid pursuit of each other. One settles, the other
skims on, then makes a great upward sweep, turns,
sweeps down and back again, again rises, turns and
sweeps again, and so on, rising and falling over the
same wide space with the regular motions and long
rushing swing of a pendulum. Each time it comes
rushing down upon the bird that has settled, and
each time, at the right moment, this one makes a
little ascension towards it, sometimes floating above

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WATCHING RINGED PLOVERS, ETC. 31

it as it passes, sometimes beneath, alighting again
immediately afterwards. This may continue for
some little time, the one bird passing backwards and
forwards over or under the other as long as he is
received in the same way. Gradually, however, these
little sorties against him from being at first hardly
more than balloon-jumps — springs with aid of wings
— become more and more prolonged, and extended
outwards into his own radius of flight. The bird
making them no longer alights in the same or nearly
the same place as where he went up, but farther
and farther away from it, the figure is lost, or becomes
indistinct, " as water is in water," till at last the two
are flying and chasing each other again.

This upward sweep from near the ground — some-
times from nearly touching it — with its attendant
sweep back again, is one of the greatest beauties of
the peewit's flight — a flight that is full of beauties.
He does it often, but not always in quite the same way ;
it is a varying perfection, for each time it is perfect,
and sometimes it seems to vie with almost any aerial
master-stroke. The bird's wings, as it shoots aloft,
are spread half open, and remain thus without being
moved at all The body is turned sideways — some-
times more, sometimes less — and the light glancing
on the pure soft white of the under part, makes it
look like 'the crest of foam on an invisible and
swiftly-moving wave. As the uprush attains its
zenith, there is a lovely, soft, effortless curling over
of the body, and the foam sinks again with the wave.
Such motions are not flight, they are passive aban-
donings and givings-up-to, driftings on unseen cur-
rents, bird-swirls and feathered eddies in the thin

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32 BIRD WATCHING

ocean of the air. It is, I think, the cessation of
all effort on the bird's part which makes the great
loveliness here. The impetus has been gained in
flight before — acres of moorland away sometimes — it
"cometh from afar." The upward fall, the delicious,
crested curl and soft, sinking swoon to the earth are
all rest — rhythmical, swift-moving rest

Another curious and extremely pretty performance
— a familiar bar of that thread of melody, that " main
theme " of the " movement " — is when two birds, one
just a little behind the other, and at slightly different
elevations, both make the same movements, in quick
succession, the bird behind mimicking the one in front
of him in a kind of aerial follow-my-leadership. Does
the one pause and hang on extended wings that
rapidly beat the air, the other does so too. Does
it sail on a little, and then make a sideway dive, it
is imitated in the same way, and thus, often for quite
a little while, the two will understudy each other —
for each, I think, may alternately become the leader.
Again — if this is not merely a development of the
above — two of them will hover on outstretched wings
directly over and almost touching each other. Some-
times, indeed, they do touch, for the bird that is stretched
above is continually trying to strike down on the other
one with his wings, and often succeeds by making a
sudden little drop on to him — a drop which is only
of an inch or so — quite covering him up for a moment
Then, disjoining, they will flap along for some while,
still close together, flashing out alternately dark and
silver, as if showing their glints to each other, till in
two "dying falls" they sweep apart, and skim the
ground and double-loop the heavens.

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WATCHING RINGED PLOVERS, ETC. 33

When peewits seem thus to battle together with
their wings, in the air, it may well be that they are
really fighting, in which case we may perhaps assume
that they are two males, and not male and female.
But as what I shall have to say with regard to the
stock-dove on this point may be applied to the pee-
wit, and as I have better evidence in the case of the
former bird, I will not dwell on it longer here.

But the question arises whether in many other
cases, when the sporting birds would seem to be male
and female, this is really the case. One is apt to
think so at first, but when one sees, often, a third bird
associate itself with a pair who are thus behaving, and
join for a little in their antics, or when one of a pair
desisting and alighting on the ground, the other con-
tinues to sport in precisely the same way with another
bird, or when, again, the supposed lovers become two
of a small flock or band, and all sport thus together,
crossing and intermingling till they again separate:
one must suppose that these evolutions, though they
may be mostly of a nuptial character, are not sexual
in the strictest sense of the term, but that the social
element enters more or less largely into them. But
amongst savages there are, I believe (if not, let us
imagine that there are), dances, the theme of which is
marriage, where sometimes men, sometimes women,
sometimes men and women, dance together, all having
in their mind the primitive ideas suggested by that
great institution, men thinking of women, women of
men, under every kind of grouping. One may suppose
it to be thus with the peewits, as they sport with one
another in the air during the nuptial season, in which
case the social and sexual elements would be a
C

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34 BIRD WATCHING

changing and varying factor. One may say, indeed,
that there can be no sexual sport or play into which
the social element does not also, and necessarily,
enter. This is, no doubt, true, strictly speaking, but
the latter may be so merged in the former that prac-
tically it does not exist.

Some of the peewits' nuptial and non-aerial bizar-
reries are of this nature, but as they are peculiar, and
seem to stand in some relation to another great class
of avian activities, I shall reserve them for a future
chapter.

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CHAPTER

Watching
Stockdoves
WoocUpigeons
Snipe, etc

I HAVE alluded to the aerial combats of the stock-
dove during the nuptial season as elucidating similar
movements on the part of the peewit, though I was
not able so fully to satisfy myself as to the meaning
of these in the latter bird. The fighting of birds on
the wing has sometimes — to my eye, at least — a very
soft and delicate appearance, which does not so much
resemble fighting as sport and dalliance between the
sexes. Larks, for instance, have what seem, at the
worst, to be delicate little mock-combats in the air,
carried on in a way which suggests this. Sometimes,
rising together, they keep approaching and retiring
from each other with the light, swinging motion of a
35

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36 BIRD WATCHING

shuttlecock just before it turns over to descend, and
this resemblance is increased by their flying perpen-
dicularly, or almost so, with their heads up and tails
down. Indeed, they seem more to be thrown through
the air than to fly. Then, in one fall, they sink
together into the grass. Or they will keep mounting
above and above each other to some height, and then
descend in something the same way, but more sweep-
ingly (for let no one hope to see exactly how they do
it), seeming to make with their bodies the soft links of
a feathered chain — or as though their own "linked
sweetness" of song had been translated into matter
and motion. In each case they make all the time,
as convenient, little kissipecks, rather than pecks, at
each other.

Again, in the case bf the redshank, though I have
little doubt now that the following, which was both
aquatic and aerial, was a genuine combat between two
males, yet often at the time, and especially in its preface
and conclusion, it seemed as though the birds were of
opposite sexes, and, if fighting at all, only amorously.

"Two birds are pursuing each other on the bank
of the river. The water is low, and a little point
of mud and shingle projects into the stream. Up and
down this, from the herbage to the water's edge and
back again, the birds run, one close behind the other,
and each uttering a funny little piping cry — € tu-tu-oo,
tu-oo, tu-oo, tu-oo.' It is one, as far as I can see,
that always pursues the other, who, after a time, flies
to the opposite bank. The pursuer follows, and the
chase is now carried on by a series of little flights
from bank to bank, sometimes straight across, some-
times slanting a little up or down the stream, whilst

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 3;

sometimes there is a little flight backwards and for-
wards along the bank in the intervals of crossing.
This continues for something like an hour, but at
last the pursuing bird, as both fly out from the bank,
makes a little dart, and, overtaking the other one,
both flutter down into the stream. They rise from
it straight up into the air like two blackbirds fight-
ing, then fall back into it again, and now there is
a violent struggle in the water. Whilst it lasts the
birds are swimming, just as two ducks would be
under similar circumstances, and every now and
then, in the pauses of exhaustion, both rest, floating
on the water. The combat would be as purely
aquatic as with coots or moor-hens, if it were not
that the two birds often struggle out of the water
and rise together into the air, where they continue
the struggle, each one rising alternately above the
other and trying to push it down — it would seem
with the legs. These were the tactics adopted in
the water too, but yet, with a good deal of motion
and exertion, there seems but little of fury. The
birds are not acharn^ or, at least, they do not
seem to be. It is a soft sort of combat, and now
it has ended in the combatants making their
mutual toilette quite close to one another. One
stands on the shore and preens itself, the other sits
just off it on the water and bathes in it like a duck."
Even here, owing principally to the friendly toilette-
scene, I was not quite clear as to the nature of. the
bird's actions. How completely I at first mistook
it in the case of the stock-dove with the way in
which it was afterwards made plain to me, the
following will show: —

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38 BIRD WATCHING

" Most interesting aerial nuptial evolutions of the
male and female stock-dove. — They navigate the air
together, following each other in the closest manner,
one being, almost all the while, just above the other,
their wings seeming to pulsate in time as soldiers
(if sweet birds will forgive such a simile) keep step.
Now they rise, now sink, making a wide, irregular
circle. Both seem to wish, yet not to wish, to
touch, almost, yet not quite, doing so, till, when
very close, the upper one drops lightly towards the
one beneath him, who sinks too ; yet for a moment
you hear the wings clap against each other. This
sounds faintly, though very perceptibly; but the
distance is great, and it must really be loud. Every
now and again the wings will cease to vibrate, and
the two birds sweep through the air on spread
pinions, but, otherwise, in the manner that has been
described. I must have watched this continuing for
at least a quarter of an hour before they sunk to the
ground together, still maintaining the same relative
position, and with quivering wings as before. Here,
however, something distracted me, the glasses lost
them, and I did not see them actually alight Another
pair rise right from the ground in this manner,* one
directly above the other, quiver upwards to some
little height, then sweep off on spread pinions, follow-
ing each other, but still at slightly different elevations.
They overtake one another, quiver up still higher,
with hardly an inch between them, then suddenly,
with an, as it were, ' enough of this/ sweep apart and
float in lovely circles, now upwards now downwards.
As they do this another bird rushes through the air
* But I did not see what they were doing before they rose.

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 39

to join them, he circles too, all three are circling,
the light glinting on one, falling from another, thrown
and caught and thrown again as if they played at
ball with light"

I thought, therefore, that birds when they flew in
pairs like this were disporting themselves together in
a nuptial flight, and making — as indeed this, in any
case, is true — a very pretty display of it What was
there, indeed — or what did there seem to be — to
indicate that angry passions lay at the root of all
this loveliness? But I had not taken sufficiently
into consideration that sharp clap of the wings indi-
cating a blow — a severe one — on the part of one of
the birds with a parry on that of the other. This
is how stock-doves, as well as other pigeons, fight
on the ground, and it is as an outcome and continua-
tion of these fierce stand-up combats — which there
is no mistaking — that the contending birds rise and
hover one over the other, in the manner described.
My notes will, I think, show this, as well as the
curious and, as it were, formal manner in which
the ground-tourney is conducted.

" Two stock-doves fighting. — This is very interesting
and peculiar. They fight with continual blows of the
wings, these being used both as sword — or, rather,
partisan — and shield. The peculiarity, however, is
this, that every now and again there is a pause in the
combat, when both birds make the low bow, with tail
raised in air, as in courting. Sometimes both will
bow together, and, as it would seem, to each other —
facing towards each other, at any rate — but at other
times they will both stand in a line, and bow, so that
one bows only to the tail of the other, who bows to

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40

BIRD WATCHING

the empty air. Or the two will bow at different
times, each seeming more concerned in making his
bow than in the direction or bestowal of it It is
like a little interlude, and when it is over the com-
batants advance, again, against each other, till they
stand front to front, and quite close. Both, then,
make a little jump, and battle vigorously with their

^J^ i^

Stock-doves : A Duel withJCeremonies

wings, striking and parrying. One now makes a
higher spring, trying, apparently, to jump on to his
opponent's back, and then strike down upon him.
This is all plain, honest fighting, but there is a con-
stant tendency — constantly carried out — for the two
to get into line, and fight in a sort of follow-my-leader
fashion, whilst making these low bows at intervals.
It is a fight encumbered with forms, with a heavy,
punctilious ceremony, reminding one of those ornate
sweeps and bowing rapier-flourishes which are entered

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 41

into before and at each pause in the duel between
Hamlet and Laertes, as arranged by Sir Henry Irving
at the Lyceum. There were four or five birds
together when this fight broke out, but I could not
feel quite sure whether the non-fighting ones watched
the fighting of the other two. If they did, I do not
think they were at all keenly interested in it Also,
the fighting birds may sometimes, when they bowed,
have done so to the birds that stood near, but it
never seemed to me that this was the case, and it
certainly was not so in most instances."

In the spring from the ground which one of the
fighting birds sometimes makes, coming down on the
other one's back and striking with the wings, we
have, perhaps, the beginning of what may develop
into a contest in the clouds, for let the bird that is
undermost also spring up, and both are in the air
in the position required ; and it is natural that the
undermost should continue to rise, because it could
more easily avoid the blows of the other whilst in the
air, by sinking down through it, than it could on the
ground at such a disadvantage. Whether, in the
following instance, the one bird jumped on to the
other's back does not appear, but, as will be seen, the
flight, which I had thought to be of a sexual and
nuptial character, was the direct outcome of a scrim-
mage. "A short fight between two birds. — It is
really most curious. There is a blow and then a
bow, then a vigorous set-to, with hard blows and
adroit parries, a pause with two profound bows,
another set-to, and then the birds rise, one keeping
just above the other, and ascend slowly, with quickly
and constantly beating wings, in the way so often

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42 BIRD WATCHING

witnessed. It would appear, therefore, that the curious
flights of two birds up into the air, the one of them
exactly over, and almost touching, the other — wherein,
as I have noted, there is frequently a blow with the
wings which, to judge by the sound reaching me from
a considerable distance, must be sometimes a severe
one — are the aerial continuations of combats com-
menced on the ground." Sometimes, that is to say.
There seems no reason why birds accustomed thus
to contend, should not sometimes do so ab initio, and
without any preliminary encounter on mother earth —
and this, I believe, is the case.

Here, then, in the stock-dove we have at the
nuptial season a kind of flight which seems certainly
to be of the nature of a combat, very much resembling
that of the peewit at the same season. I have seen
peewits fighting on the ground, and once they were
for a moment in the air together at a foot or two
above it, and the one a little above the other. This,
however, may have been mere chance, and I have
not seen the one form of combat arise unmistakably
out of the other, as in the case of the stock-doves.
But assuming that in each case there is a combat,
is it certain that the contending birds are always,
or generally, two males, and not male and female?
It certainly seems natural to suppose this, but with
the stock-dove, at any rate (and I believe with pigeons
generally), the two sexes sometimes fight sharply;
and, moreover, the female stock-dove bows to the
male, as well as the male to the female, both which
points will be brought out in the following in-
stances : —

"A hen bird is sitting alone on the sand, a male

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 43

flies up to her and begins bowing. She does not
respond, but walks away, and, on being followed and
pressed, stands and strikes at her annoyer with the
wings, and there is, then, a short fight between the
two. At the end of it, and when the bowing pigeon
has been driven off and is walking away, having his
tail, therefore, turned to the one he is leaving, this
one also bows, once only, but quite unmistakably.
The bow was directed towards her retiring adversary,
and also wooer, the two birds therefore standing in
a line." And on another occasion "A stock-dove
flies to another sitting on the warrens, and bows to
her, upon which she also bows to him. Yet his
addresses are not successfully urged."

The sexes are here assumed, for the male and
female stock-dove do not differ sufficiently for one to
distinguish them at a distance through the glasses.
When, however, one sees a bird fly, like this, to
another one and begin the regular courting action,
one seems justified in assuming it to be a male and
the other a female. Both, however, bowed, and there
was a fight, though a short one (I have seen others
of longer duration), between them. It becomes,
therefore, a question whether the much more deter-
mined fights which I have witnessed are not also
between the male and the female stock - dove, and
not between two males. If so, the origin of the
conflict is, probably, in all such cases — as it certainly
has been in those which I have witnessed — the
desires of the male bird, to which he tries to make
the female submit That she, in the very midst of
resisting, taken, as it would seem, "in her heart's
extremest hate," should yet bow to her would-be

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44 BIRD WATCHING

ravisher seems strange, but she certainly does so.
Whether it would be more or less strange that two
male birds, whilst fiercely contending, should act in
this way, I will leave to my readers to decide, and
thus settle the nature of these curious ceremonious
encounters and their graceful and interesting aerial
continuations, to their own satisfaction.*

However it may be, the bow itself— which I will
now notice more fully — is certainly of a nuptial char-
acter, and is seen in its greatest perfection only when
the male stock-dove courts the female. This he does
by either flying or walking up to her and bowing
solemnly till his breast touches the ground, his tail
going up at the same time to an even more than
corresponding height, though with an action less
solemn. The tail in its ascent is beautifully fanned,
but it is not spread out flat like a fan, but arched,
which adds to the beauty of its appearance. As it is
brought down it closes again, but, should the bow
be followed up, it is instantly again fanned out and
sweeps the ground, as its owner, now risen from his
prostrate attitude, with head erect and throat swelled,
makes a little rush towards the object of his desires.
The preliminary bow, however, is more usually fol-
lowed by another, or by two or three others, each
one being a distinct and separate affair, the bird
remaining with his head sunk and tail raised and
fanned for some seconds before rising to repeat.
Thus it is not like two or three little bobs — which
is the manner of wooing pursued by the turtle-dove —

* With this suggestion, however, that fighting may be blended with
sexual display in the combats of male birds owing to association of
ideas, for rivalry is the main cause of such combats.

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 45

but there is one set bow, to which but one elevation
and depression of the tail belongs, and the offerer
of it must not only regain his normal upright attitude,
but remain in it for a perceptible period before making
another. This bow, therefore, is of the most impres-
sive and even solemn nature, and expresses, as much as
anything in dumb show can express, " Madam, I am
your most devoted."

I believe — but I am not sure, and quite ready to
be corrected — that the stock-dove's bow is either a
silent one, or, at least, that the note uttered is subdued
— the latter seems the more probable. At any rate,
I was never able to catch it, either when watching
on the warrens at a greater or less distance, or when
not so far, amongst trees — for the stock-dove woos
also amongst the leafy woods, as does the wood-
pigeon, of which it is a smaller replica, but without
the ring. "The male wood-pigeon, when courting,
bows to the female lengthways along the branch on
which he is sitting, elevating his tail at the same time,
in just the same way as does the stock-dove. As he
does so, he says 'coo-oo-oo/ the last syllable being
long drawn out, and having a very intense expression,
with a rise in the tone of it, sometimes almost to the
extent of becoming a soft shrillness. Having de-
livered himself of this long 'coo-oo-oo/ he says
several times together in an undertone, and very
quickly, 'coo, coo, coo coo/ or 'coo, coo, coo, coo,
coo, coo, coo/ after which, rising, and then bowing
again, he recommences with the long-drawn, im-
passioned 'coo-oo-oo/ as before. All this he repeats
several times, the number, probably, depending on
whether the female bird stays to hear his addresses

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46 BIRD WATCHING

or, as is usual in the contrary, flies away. If she
admits them pairing may take place, and at the
conclusion of it both birds utter a peculiar, low, deep,
and very raucous note which I have heard on this
occasion, but on no other."

If the courting of the female stock-dove by the
male whilst on the ground, or amongst the branches
of a tree, is of a somewhat heavy nature — more
pompous than beautiful — as is, I think, the case, it
is lightened in the most graceful manner by the
aerial intermezzos — the broidery of the theme — which
charmingly relieve and set it off; for often, "after
bowing and walking together a little, near, but not
touching — a Hermia and Lysander distance — both
rise, both mount, attain a height, then pause, and,
as from the summit of some lofty precipice, descend
on outspread joy-wings in a very music of motion.
It is pretty, too, to watch two of them flying together
and then alighting, when one instantly bows before
the other with empressi mien. Before, you have not
known which was which, or who was escorting the
other. Now you feel sure that it is he — the empress^
the pompously bowing bird — who has taken her — the
retiring, the coy one — for a little fly." For though
it is undoubted that the female stock-dove bows to
the male, yet, in courting, it is the male, I believe,
who commences and carries it to a fine art

There are no birds surely — or, at least, not many
— who can sport more gracefully in the air than these.
" One is sitting and cooing almost in a rabbit-burrow,
and so close to a rabbit there that it looks like a little
call Sure enough, too, after a while, the bird, who,
of course, is the visitor, rises — but into the air sans

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ceremonie — and makes as though to fly away. But
having gone only a little distance, with quick strokes
of the wings, it rests upon their expanded surface,
and, in a lovely easy sweep, sails round again in the
direction from whence it started. It passes beyond
the place, the wings now again pulsating, then makes
another wide sweep of grace and comes down near
where it was before. In a little it again rises, again
sweeps and circles, and again descends in the neigh-
bourhood. Another now appears, flying towards it,
and as it passes over where the first is sitting, this
one rises into the air to meet it. They approach,
glide from each other, again approach, and thus
alternately widening and narrowing the distance
between them, one at length goes down, the other
passing on to alight, at last, at that distance which
the etiquette of the affair prescribes. This circling
flight on swiftly resting wings is most beautiful. The
pausing sweep, the lazy onwardness, the marriage, as
it were, of rest and speed is a delicious thing, another
sense, a delicate purged voluptuousness, a very ban-
quet to the eye." Such beauty - flights are almost
always in the early morning, when appreciative
persons are mostly in bed, seen only by the dull
eye of some warrener walking to find and kill the
beasts that have lain tortured in his traps all night,
exciting (if any) but a murderous thought at the
time, with the after-reflection, "If I'd a had a gun

now "

Stock-doves, as is well known, often choose rabbit-
burrows to lay their eggs in, and, having regard to
their powers of flight and arborial aptitudes, it might
be thought that but for the rabbits they would never

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48 BIRD WATCHING

be seen on these open, sandy tracts, the abode of the
peewit, stone -curlew, ringed plover, red-legged part-
ridge, and other such waste-haunting species. But
the nesting habits of a bird must follow its general
ones almost necessarily in the first instance, and
though there are many apparently striking instances
to the contrary, they are probably to be explained
by the former having remained fixed whilst the
latter have changed. No doubt, therefore, the stock-
dove began to spend much of its time on the ground
before it thought of laying its eggs there, and of the
facilities offered by rabbit-holes for so doing. That
the habits as well as the organisms of all living
creatures are in a more or less plastic and fluctuating
state is, I believe, a conclusion come to by Darwin,
and it agrees entirely with the little I have been
able to observe in regard to birds. I have seen the
robin redbreast become a wagtail or stilt-walker, the
starling a wood-pecker or fly-catcher, the tree-creeper
also a fly-catcher, the wren an accomplished tree-
creeper, the moor-hen a partridge or plover, and so
on, and so on, all such instances having been noted
down by me at the time. Most birds are ready to
vary their habits suddenly and de novo if they can
get a little profit on the transaction, and the extent
to which they have varied gradually in a long course
of time and under changed conditions is, of course,
a commonplace after Darwin. The wood-pigeon has
not yet begun to lay its eggs in rabbit -holes or
anywhere but in trees and bushes, but that it may
some day do so is not improbable, for it comes
down sometimes, though not very frequently, on the
same sandy wastes that are loved by the stock-dove,

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 49

and here, like him, the male will court the female as
though on the familiar bough.* When I have seen
him courting her thus on the ground, the low bow
which he makes her has been prefaced by one or
more curious hops, which I have not seen in the
stock-dove's courting. They look curious because
they are so out of character, hopping being, as far
as I know, a mode of progression foreign to all the
columbidce. Whether the wood-pigeon hops upon any
other occasion I cannot be sure. If he does not —
and it is certainly not his usual habit — his adoption
of it here may be looked upon as a purely nuptial
antic. In this the lark, which is also a stepping
and not a hopping bird, keeps him company, as
would the cormorant, were it not that he hops often
as a matter of convenience. Larks I have not seen
hop in everyday life, though sometimes I have
thought that they did when running quickly over
ploughed land in winter, as starlings often do when
they break from a run which has become too quick
for them into a running hop. But I came to the
conclusion that this was only apparent, and due to
their up and down motion over the clods of earth.
A hop is quite foreign to the lark's disposition, yet,
when courting, "the male bird advances upon the
female with wings drooped, crest and tail raised,
and with a series of impressive hops." The hop of
the wood-pigeon, under similar circumstances, is of a
heavy and deliberate nature, as might be expected his
build and size, and has the same set and formal from
character as the bow which immediately follows it.
The turtle-dove bows too, in courtship, but it is a
* The same remark applies to the turtle-dove.

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SO BIRD WATCHING

series of quick little bows, or, rather bobs, which he
makes to his fiancie instead of one or more slower
and much more imposing ones. Essentially, however,
it is the same thing. The pace has been quickened
and the interval lessened, whilst, to allow of the
increased speed, the bow itself has been shorn of
much of its pomp and circumstance, so that it has
become, as I say, a mere bob. The turtle-dove may
perform some half-dozen or more of these bobs, taking
less time, perhaps, to get through them than do his
larger relatives to achieve one of their solemn and
formal bows. Still he is pompous too, he bends down
low at the shrine, and though each little bob may
not be much in itself, yet, when thus strung together,
the display as a whole is equal to the other two.

All the time he is thus bowing or bobbing the
turtle-dove utters a deep, rolling, musical note which
is continuous (or sounds so), and does not cease till
he has got back into his more everyday attitude.
The hen looks sometimes surprised, sometimes as
though she had expected it, and sometimes, I think,
— but of this I am not quite positive — she will
return the little series of musical bobs. This is in
tree -land; but I have seen the turtle-dove court
on the ground, and he then, between his bobbings,
made a curious dancing step towards the female, who
retired and gave her final answer by flying away.
But, besides this, these birds have another and most
charming nuptial disportment Sitting a deux in
some high tree, one of them will every now and again
fly out of it, mount upwards, make one or two circling
sweeps around and above it, then, after remaining
poised for some seconds, descend on spread wings

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' 4u*/&~t/en«V:SA*< <n*fi/e4t/ J&p/ i4

'A

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 51

in the most graceful manner, alighting on the same
branch beside the waiting partner. This is a beautiful
thing to see, and especially in the early fresh morning
of a clear, lovely day. It seems then as if the bird
kept flying up to greet " the early rising sun," or as
rejoicing in the beauty of all things. These are the
coquetries, the prettinesses of loving couples, as to
which— on one side at least — what has not been said
by the writers of our clumsy race ! But " if the lions
were sculptors " — How might a bird novelist expatiate !
Not less beautiful is the nuptial flight of the wood-
pigeon. Of this, the clapping of the wings above the
back is the most salient feature, a sound which is
never heard during the winter or after the breeding-
season is fairly over. " In full flight, the bird smites
its wings two or three times smartly together above
the back, then, holding them extended and motionless,
it seems to pause for one instant — if there can be
pause in swiftest motion — before sinking and then
rising and sinking again, as does a wave, or as though
it rested on an aerial switchback. Then continuing
his flight — recommencing, that is to say, the strokes
of his wings — he may do the same when he has gone
a few air-fields farther, and so " pass in music out of
sight" Sometimes there will be only a single clap
of the wings instead of two or three,* but always it
is made just before the still-spreading of them, and
the hanging pause in the air; for let the speed be
never so great — and it hardly seems possible that it
could be checked so suddenly, and why should the
bird wish to check it? — yet the effect upon the eye
of the wings extended and motionless after they have
* Sometimes, too, not any, the flight being the same.

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52 BIRD WATCHING

been pulsating so rapidly is as of a pause. This
pause, or rather this rest-in-speed, as the bird, re-
nouncing all effort, is carried swiftly and placidly
onwards in a curve of the extremest beauty has a
delicious effect upon one. One's spirit goes out until
one seems to be with the bird oneself, hanging and
sweeping as it does. Yet in this glory of motion it
will often be shot by beings, in all grace and beauty
and poetry of life, how infinitely its inferiors ! This
makes me think of Darwin's comment upon Bate's
account of a humming-bird caught and killed by a
huge Brazilian spider, wherein the destroyer and the
victim — " one, perhaps, the loveliest, the other the most
hideous in the scale of creation"* — are contrasted.
Spiders, too, had they their Phidiases, might be
idealised and made to look quite beautiful in marble,
even perhaps to our eyes (what cannot genius do?)
whilst to their own, of course, the spider form would
be "the spider form divine."

Wood-pigeons will also fly circling about above the
trees in which they have been sitting, in rapid pursuit
of each other, and whilst doing so, one or other of
them may be heard to make a very pronounced
swishing or beating sound with the wings, reminding
one of the peewit, nightjar, and a great many other
birds. Of instrumental music produced during flight,
the snipe is a familiar example. Here, however, the
very peculiar and highly specialised sound known as
bleating or drumming is produced, not by the feathers
of the wing, but by those of the tail, which have
been specially modified, as we may suppose (those, at
least, of us who are believers in that force), by a pro-

* I quote from memory.

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 53

cess of musical sexual selection. To quote Darwin :
"No one was able to explain the cause until Mr
Meves observed that on each side of the tail the
outer feathers are peculiarly formed, having a stiff
sabre-shaped shaft with the oblique barbs of unusual
length, the outer webs being strongly bound together.
He found that by blowing on these feathers, or by
fastening them to a long thin stick and waving them
rapidly through the air, he could reproduce the
drumming noise made by the living bird. Both
sexes are furnished with these feathers, but they are
generally larger in the male than in the female, and
emit a deeper note."

The possibility of reproducing the sound in the
manner described seems conclusive as to the cause
of it Otherwise I should have come to the con-
clusion, by watching the bird, that the wings and
not the tail were the agency employed.

" I have just been watching for some time a snipe
continually coursing through the air and making,
at intervals, the well-known drumming or bleating
sound, — bleating certainly seems to me the word
which best expresses its quality. The wings are
constantly and quickly quivered, not only when the
bird rises or flies straight forward, but also during
its swift oblique descents, when one might expect
that they would be held rigid in the ordinary manner.
From each sweep down the bird rises and beats
again upwards, but when the flight has been con-
tinued long enough the wings are pressed to the
sides as the plunge to earth is made, which is also
one way in which the lark descends. It is during
these downward flights — but not during the descent

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54 BIRD WATCHING

to earth — that the sound strikes the ear. A second
bird flies, to my surprise and interest, quite differently.
After scudding about for some little time in a devious
side-to-side pathway, less up and down, as it seems
to me, than the other, it suddenly tilts itself side-
ways, or almost sideways — one wing pointing sky-
wards, the other earthwards — and makes a rapid
swoop down, with the wings not beating. I watch
it doing this time after time, both with the naked
eye and through the glasses, and each time that the
swoop is made no bleating or other sound accom-
panies it: the flight is noiseless, like that of an
ordinary bird. Two other snipes are now flying
about in this latter way and chasing each other.
At first — and this included a great many sweeps
down — I heard no sound. Afterwards I thought I
heard it faintly sometimes, but could not be sure
that it was not made by another bird — a frequent
difficulty in watching snipe." Again, "A snipe is
standing alone 'in the melancholy marshes/ quite
still, and uttering the creaky, sea-sawey note. I can
see the two long mandibles of the beak dividing
slightly and again closing. The note is now thin
and subdued, but, the bird taking flight suddenly, it
becomes much accentuated. It joins two other birds
in the air, and all three now sport and pursue each
other about, constantly uttering this cry, but bleating
only occasionally. I am lying flat on the ground,
and they often fly close about and over me, the light,
too, being good, it being all before 5.40, and not
much after 5, perhaps, when it commenced (this was
April 4th). I note that they often descend through
the air without vibrating the wings, and there is

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then no bleating sound — this whilst quite close. I
think — but am not yet quite sure — that they some-
times descend in this way uttering the cry. When
they bleat, however, there is never the cry at the
same time. It is impossible to tell when these birds
are going to alight, as they often descend in the
manner that they use when alighting, but, when
almost down, skim a little just over the ground, and,
rising again, continue their flight as before. Yet
that they have had it in their mind to alight I feel
sure, for they always do so with that particular action."

Since, then, the snipe has two ways of making his
rapid descents through the air, in one of which he
quivers his wings and in the other not, and since,
on the latter occasion, the bleat is not heard or, if
heard, only faintly, it would be natural to suppose
that the sound — if not vocal — was produced by the
rapidly vibrating feathers of the wing when in swift
downward motion rather than by those of the tail,
which should not, one would think, be affected by
the difference. Also the fact of the vocal note not
being uttered at the same time as the bleat might
make one think that this, too, was vocal. Such argu-
ments, however, would be at best but " poor seemings
and thin likelihoods" — the last one, I believe, not
supported by what we know (at least I cannot at
the moment think of a bird that produces vocal and
instrumental music at the same time). If the sound
can really be reproduced by waving the modified
feathers of the tail, then this is a demonstration.*

Snipe, as already observed, descend to the ground

* I have lately observed that when the snipe descends with quivering
wings, some outer feathers of the tail on each side are shot out from

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$6 BIRD WATCHING

in order to alight upon it in a manner quite different
to the oblique downward-shooting sweeps, with wings
extended, whether vibrating or not, as practised in
ordinary nuptial flight. There are three ways, possibly
more; but three I have seen. In the first the bird
shoots gracefully down, with the wings pressed to the
sides, as already described. In the second the wings
are raised straight, or almost straight, above the back,
and this gives, perhaps, a still more graceful appear-
ance. The third way is not nearly so usual a one as
the other two — in fact, I only recall having seen it
once. In this the wings are but half spread (whilst
held in the ordinary manner) and motionless, and the
bird descends in several sweeps to one side or the
other, something after the manner in which a kite
comes to the ground. No sound attends any of these
forms of descent

The cry of the snipe which I have alluded to, is
of a curious nature, something like the word " chack-
wood, chack-wood, chack-wood, chack-wood," con-
stantly repeated, and having a regular rise and fall
in it, which is why I call it a " see-saw note." Some-
times, when the bird is a little way off, it sounds very
much like a swishing of the wings ; but when these
are really swished, as they often are — purposely, I
believe, and as a nuptial performance — the difference
is at once apparent. "Two snipes will often fly
chasing each other, uttering this note, and making
from time to time the loud swishing with the wings.
Often, too, there will be a short, harsh cry — harsh, but
with that wild, loved harshness that lives in the notes

it in a most noticeable manner, making — or looking like — two little
curved tufts. They are not seen before, which seems to me strong
evidence. The tail itself is fanned.

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of birds that haunt the waste — which is instantly
followed by a swishing of the wings, making quite
a music in the air. When at its loudest and harshest,
this cry, which then becomes a scream, is quite an
extraordinary sound, having a mewing intonation in
it suggesting a cat as the performer. Yet it is nothing
so extraordinary as some notes of the snipe which I
have heard, mostly during the winter, and which are
indeed — at least they have struck me as being so—
amongst the most wonderful that ever issued from
the throat of bird. I will recur to them again when
I come to the moor-hen (for it was in his company
I heard them), a bird that is itself as a whole orchestra
of peculiar brazen instruments. These wild cries and
screams blend harmoniously with the curious, mono-
tonous, yet musical bleating, and come finely out of
the gloom of the evening thickening into night, as
it descends over the wide expanse of the fenlands.
Best heard then — and there: the darkening sky, the
wide and wind-swept waste of coarse tufted grass,
amongst which brown dock-stalks stand tall-ly and
thinly, the long, raised bank with its thin belt of
reeds beyond, emphasising rather than relieving the
flatness, the lonely thorn-bush, the stunted willow or
two, the black line of alders marking the course of
the sluggish river, the wind, the sad whispered music
in the grasses, the wilder music in the air, the alone-
ness, the drearness — such voices fit such scenes."

The male and female snipe both bleat, but the
feathers in the tafil which produce the sound are less
modified in the female, and the sound which they
produce is said to be different in consequence. That
there must be a difference would seem to follow of

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58 BIRD WATCHING

necessity; but, according to my own experience, it
requires a nice ear to distinguish the bleating of the
one sex from that of the other. There is, indeed, some
slight difference in the sound made by each individual
snipe, but I only once remember hearing one bleating
with a markedly different tone. Here the sound had
a lower, softer, and deeper intonation, and was, to my
mind, a more musical sound altogether. When heard
just before or after the bleat of another snipe the
difference was very marked, but I considered it to
be rather an individual than a sexual distinction,
for I do not know that there is any reason to suppose
that the female snipe bleats less frequently than the
male except when she is sitting on her eggs.

Snipe, when bleating, fly round and round in a wide
irregular circle, and for a long time one will not over-
step the invisible boundary so as to encroach upon the
domain of the other. It seems — but the illusion will
be broken after a time — as though each bird had his
allotment in the fields of air and knew that he would
be guilty of a rudeness in entering that of another.
Thus, though three or four of them may be flying
and bleating in the neighbourhood, it is often difficult
to watch more than one at a time with anything
like closeness of observation, a difficulty which is
often increased by the failing light; for, in my own
experience, snipe bleat best either in the early —
though not very early — morning, or when evening
has begun to close in. To follow their wide, swift,
eccentric circle of flight one must keep turning round
on a fixed point, and this, amidst swamp and grass-
tufts, is difficult to do without losing one's balance.
Yet still one watches and turns and strains one's eyes

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STOCK-DOVES, WOOD-PIGEONS, SNIPE 59

into the darkness, unable to go, for one lov$s to see
that small, swift, vocal shadow appearing out of the
great, still, silent ones and disappearing, again, into
them. When thus disporting, each within its own
charmed circle, the downward rush and bleat of one
snipe will often for a long time immediately precede
or follow that of another, bleat answering to bleat,
till at length the duet is broken and complicated by
a third intermingling voice. At last a bird, trampling
on etiquette, will flit into the circle of the one you
are watching, and the two, excitedly pursuing each
other with "chack-wood, chack-wood," or, with the
harsh, wild scream and loud swish of pinions, will
speed off and vanish together.

No doubt the male snipes bleat against each other
in rivalry, but it would also seem (a sentence, I confess,
which I never use when I have an undoubted instance
to give) that the male and female bleat to one another
connubially, or in a lover-like manner. Here, how-
ever, is an instance (as I translate it) of the one
bleating whilst the other sits listening and responding
vocally on the ground.

"A snipe flies with a scream over the marshy
meadows. As he passes one little swampy bit another
snipe utters from out of it the see-sawey, 'chack-
wood* note, in answer, as it appears, to the scream.
The first snipe now flies round about over the meadows
and land adjoining, bleating, whilst the other one in
the grass continues to see-saw."

Many birds, as is well known, have the instinct,
when suddenly discovered with their young ones, of
tumbling over or fluttering along the ground as
though they had sustained some injury which had

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rendered them unable to fly, so that the murderous
or thievish longings of "the paragon of animals"
being diverted from their progeny to themselves, the
former may take thought and escape. The nightjar,
partridge, and, especially, the wild-duck, are good
instances of this, and in every case where I have
come upon them under the requisite conditions they
have never failed to show me their shrewd estimate
of man's nature. With all these three birds, however,
it has always been the presence of the young that
has moved them to act in this manner, their conduct
during incubation being quite different The instance
which I am now going to bring forward with regard
to the snipe has this peculiarity, if it be one, that
the bird was hatching her eggs at the time and was
still engaged in doing so a few days afterwards,
proving that the young were not just on the point
of coming out on the occasion when she was first
disturbed. As I noted all down the instant after its
occurrence, the reader may rely upon having here
just exactly what this snipe did.

" This morning a snipe flew out of some long reedy
grass within a few feet of me, and almost instantly
taking the ground again — but now on the smooth,
green meadow — spun round over it, now here, now
there, its long bill lying along the ground as though it
were the pivot on which it turned, and uttering loud
cries all the while. Having done this for a minute
or so, it lay, or rather crouched, quite still on the
ground, its head and beak lying along it, its neck
outstretched, its legs bent under it, with the body
rising gradually, till the posterior part, with the tail,
which it kept fanned out, was right in the air. And

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in this strange position it kept uttering a long, low,
hoarse note, which, together with its whole demeanour,
seemed to betoken great distress. It remained thus
for some minutes before flying away, during which
time I stood still, watching it closely, and when it was
gone, soon found the nest, with four eggs in it, in
the grass-tuft from which it had flown. Its action
whilst spinning over the ground was very like that
of the nightjar when put up from her young ones."
It is to be noted here that this snipe flew a very
little way from the nest, and when on the ground
did not travel over it to any extent, but only in
a small circle just at first, after which it kept in one
place. The Arctic skua (Richardson's skua, as some
call it, but I hate such appropriative titles — as though
a species could be any man's property!) behaves in
the same kind of way, for, lying along on its breast,
with its wings spread out and beating the ground,
it utters plaintive little pitiful cries, keeping always
in the same, or nearly the same, spot This has,
of course, the effect of drawing one's attention to
the bird, and away from the eggs or young (whether
it acts thus in regard to both I am not quite sure,
but believe that it does), but the effect produced on
one — though here, of course, as throughout, I only
speak for myself— is that the bird is in great mental
distress — prostrated as it were — rather than acting
with any conscious " intent to deceive." The same is
the case with the nightjar, whose sudden spinning
about over the ground in a manner much more
resembling a maimed bluebottle or cockchafer than
a bird, seems to proceed from some violent nervous
shock or mental disturbance. The same, too, though

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62 BIRD WATCHING

in a lesser degree, may be said of the partridge, and
in all cases it is obvious that the bird is very
much excited and ausser sick.

Darwin, if I remember rightly * found it difficult
to believe that birds, when they thus distract our
attention from their young to themselves, do so with
a full consciousness of what they are doing and
why they are doing it When the female wild-duck,
however, acts in this manner, it is difficult, I think,
to escape from this conclusion. She flaps for a long
way over the surface of the water, pausing every
now and again and waiting, as though to see the
effect of her ruse, and continuing her tactics as soon
as you get up to her. Having thus led you a long
distance away, she rises, and leaving the river, flies
in an extended circle, which will ultimately bring
her back to it by the other bank when you are well
out of the way. The chicks, meanwhile, have (of
course) scuttled in amongst the reeds and rushes,
though they often take some little while to conceal
themselves. She acts thus on a river or broad stretch
of water, which enables her to keep you in sight
for some time. But it is obvious that if you come
upon her with her family in a very narrow and sharply
winding stream, the first bend of it will hide you
from her, and she would then, assuming that she
is acting intelligently, have all the agony of mind
of not knowing whether her plan was succeeding or
not. It was in such a situation that I met her only
last spring, and to my surprise — and indeed, admira-
tion — instead of flapping along the water as I have
always known her to do before in such a contre-

* But I have not been able to find the passage, so may be mistaken.

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temps, she instantly flew out on to the opposite bank,
and began to flap and struggle along the flat marshy
meadow-land, of course in full view. I crossed the
stream and pursued her, allowing her to "fool me
to the top of my bent," and this she appeared to
me to do, or to think she was doing, on much the
same kind of indicia as one would go by in the
case of a man. Now, unless this bird had wished
to keep me in view, and thus judge of the effect of
her stratagem, or unless she feared that "out of
sight n would be " out of mind " with regard to her-
self (but this would be to credit her with yet greater
powers of reflection), why should she have left the
water, the element in which she usually and most
naturally performs these actions, to modify them on
the land? Yet to suppose that it has ever occurred
suddenly, and as a new idea, to any bird to act a
pious fraud of this kind, would be to suppose wonders,
and also to be unevolutionary (almost as serious a
matter nowadays as to be un-English).

But may we not think that an act, which in its
origin has been of a nervous and, as it were, patho-
logical character, has become, in time, blended with
intelligence, and that natural selection has not only
picked out those birds who best performed a me-
chanical action — which, though it sprung merely from
mental disturbance, was yet of a beneficial nature —
but also those whose intelligence began after a time
to enable them to see whereto such action tended,
and thus consciously to guide and improve it ? There
is evidence, I believe — though neither space nor the
nature of this slight work will allow me to go into
it — that such abnormal mental states as of old in-

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64 BIRD WATCHING

spired "the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell,"
and to-day influence priests or medicine-men amongst
savages (to go no farther), can be, and are, combined
with ordinary shrewd intelligence; nor does it seem
too much to suppose that a bird that was always
seeing the effect of what it did when it, as it were,
fell into hysterics, should have come in time to reckon
upon the hysterics, to know what they were good
for, and even to some extent to direct them — as a
great actor in an emotional scene must govern himself
in the main, though, probably, a great deal of the
gesture, action, and facial expression is unconsciously
and spontaneously performed.

Now, if we assume that these ruses employed by
birds for the protection of their young — as in the
case of the wild-duck — have commenced in purely
involuntary movements, without any proposed object,
the instance here given of the snipe may perhaps
throw some light upon their origin. A bird, whilst
incubating, and thus, hour after hour, doing violence
to its active and energetic disposition, is under the
influence of a strong force in opposition to and
overcoming the forces which usually govern it. Its
mental state may be supposed to be a highly-
wrought and tense one, and it therefore does not
seem surprising that some sudden surprise and
startle at such a time, by rousing a force opposite to
that under the control of which it then is, and pro-
ducing thereby a violent conflict, should throw it off
its mental balance and so produce something in the
nature of hysteria or convulsions. But let this once
take place with anything like frequency in the case
of any bird, and natural selection will begin to act

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As the eggs of a bird are stationary, and do not run
away or seek shelter whilst the parent bird is thus
behaving in their neighbourhood, it would, on the
whole, be better for it to sit close or to fly away in
an ordinary and non-betraying manner. Allowing this,
then, as the eggs of a bird would be less exposed to
danger the less often the sitting bird went off them
in this way, might not natural selection keep throwing
the impulse to do so farther and farther backwards
till after the incubatory process was completed ? Then
the tendency would be encouraged — at least in the case
of birds whose young can early get about — for, as a
rule, such antics would shield them better than sitting
still. The young would generally be in several places
— giving as many chances of discovery — and, on
account of the suddenness of the surprise, would often
be running or otherwise exposing themselves. Take,
for instance, the case of the wild-duck, where I have
always found the brood a most conspicuous object at
first, and taking some time, even on reedy rivers, to
get into concealment.

And I can see no reason why an aiding intelligence
in the performance of such movements should not be
selected pari passu with the movements themselves,
though of a nervous and, originally, purely automatic
character. Natural selection would, in this way, de-
velop a special intelligence in the performance of
some special actions, out of proportion to the general
intelligence of the creature performing them, though,
no doubt, this also would tend to be thereby enlarged.
And this is what, in fact, we often do see or seem to see.

I may add that when, a few days afterwards, I
again approached this same nest the bird went off it
£

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66 BIRD WATCHING

without any performance of the sort This, if we could
be sure that it was the same bird, would seem to show
that the habit was in an unfixed and fluctuating
condition. On the other hand, a bird that acts thus
in the case of its young, would, I think, always act so.
Perhaps it may be wondered why I have not in-
cluded the peewit in the list of birds which employ,
or appear to employ, a ruse in favour of their young
ones, since this bird is always given as the stock
instance of it. The reason is, that whilst the birds I
mentioned have always, in my experience, gone off,
so to speak, like clock-work, when the occasion for
it arrived, I have never known a peewit to do so,
though I have probably disturbed as many scores
— perhaps hundreds — of them, under the requisite
conditions, as I have units of the others. I have also
inquired of keepers and warreners, and found their ex-
perience to tally with mine. They have spoken of the
cock bird " leading you astray " aerially, whilst the hen
sits on the nest, and of both of them flying, with
screams, close about your head when the young are
out, which statements I have often verified. But they
have never professed to have seen a peewit flapping
over the ground as with a broken wing, in the way it
is so constantly said to do. I cannot, therefore, but
think that, by some chance or other, an action common
to many birds has been particularly, and yet wrongly,
ascribed to the peewit As it seems to me, this is just
one of those cases where negative evidence is almost
as strong as affirmative, and though, of course, quite
ready to accept any properly witnessed instance of the
peewit's acting in this way, I cannot but conclude that
it does so very rarely indeed.

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CHAPTER IV

Watching Wheateare, Dabchicks, Oyster-
catchers, etc

1HE wheatear is common over the warren-lands, and
as I have been so fortunate as to witness for a whole
afternoon, and very closely, a series of combined dis-
plays and combats on the part of two rival males,
which struck me as very interesting, and as bearing
on the question of sexual selection, I will give the
account in extenso % as I noted it down from point
to point between the intervals of following the birds
about on my hands and knees. Should the narrative
be tedious — and it is, I confess, somewhat minute — I
need not ask my readers to absolve nature and give
me the blame of it, for I am assured that anyone in
67

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68 BIRD WATCHING

the least degree interested in birds and their ways
might have lain and watched these bizarreries a
hundred times repeated, without wishing to get up
and go. My observations were made on* the last
day but one of March, and are as follows : —

" 2.30 (about). — Two male wheatears have for some
time been hopping about in each other's company,
and one now makes a hostile demonstration against
the other. This he does by advancing and lowering
the head, with the beak pointed straight forward,
ruffling out the feathers, fanning the tail, and making
a sudden, swift run towards him. He stops, however,
before the point of actual contact, and the two birds
hop about, each affecting to think very little about
the other." The wheatear, I should say, always hops,
and, by so doing, always give me something of a sur-
prise, for there is that in his appearance which does
not suggest hopping, but rather that he would run
over the ground like a wagtail. His hops, however,
are so quick, and take him forward so smoothly, that
the effect on the eye is often much more like run-
ning than hopping. I therefore often speak of him as
running, though, I believe, he never does so in the
strict sense of the word. To continue. " After some
time, during which there was nothing specially note-
worthy in their behaviour, the two birds flew, one after
the other, to some little distance off on a higher and
more sandy part of the warren, and here a female
wheatear appeared, hopping near them. One of the
males at once ran to her, but had instantly to fly
before the fierce wrath of the other. The hen then
flew to a stunted willow in the neighbourhood, where
she sat perched amongst the topmost twigs, the males

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 69

not following her, but continuing to hop about in each
other's vicinity as before. She remained there some
five or ten minutes, when she flew out over the
warrens, and with my attention concentrated on the
rival birds, I lost her, and cannot say where she went
down.

" One of the male wheatears now enters a shallow
depression in the ground — not a hole, or the mouth
of a rabbit-burrow, but one of those natural fallings
away of the soil which make rugged and give a
character to these sandy, lichen-clothed wastes. As
soon as he is in it he seems to become excited, and
running forward and coming out on the opposite
brink, he flies from this to the one by which he
has entered, hardly two feet off, then instantly back
again, again to the other, and so backwards and for-
wards some dozen or twenty times, so rapidly that
he makes of himself a little arch in the air constantly
spanning the hollow, all in the greatest excitement.
Finishing here, he runs a little way to another such
depression, enters it, and coming out again, acts in
precisely the same way, making the same little
rapidly moving arch of two black up-and-down-
pointed wings, moving now this way, now that, now
forwards, now backwards, from .edge to edge of the
trough, perching each time on each edge of it, but
so quickly, it seems rather to be on the points of
the wings than the feet that he comes down. Wings
are all one sees ; they whirl forwards and backwards,
backwards and forwards, making a little arch or
bridge, the highest point of which, in the centre —
which is the point of the upper wing — is some two
feet from the floor of the trough, whilst the point

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70 BIRD WATCHING

of the lower one almost touches it. All this time
the other male bird is quite near, but seems to take
little notice of the performance. At length the
frenzied one desists from his madness of motion,
and the two now hop about over the warren as
before, closely in each other's company. In some
ten minutes or so there is the same display — or
rather frenzy — but whether made by the same bird
or the other one I am unable to say. This time
it commences on the even turf and not in a hollow,
but after a few throws the bird finds one and throws,
thenceforth, over that." I have seen, I think, a
Japanese acrobat throw a wonderful succession of
somersaults backwards and forwards within his own
length. With the bird there was no somersault, but
the effect was something the same. The man's body
also presented the appearance of an arch in the air
(as when one vibrates a lighted joss-stick from side
to side), but, as the bird moved much more quickly,
the resemblance in its case was more perfect

" Once or Jwice again, now, one of the two birds
acts in the same way, always seeming to prefer to
do so over a depression in the ground. One then
flies up a little way into the air, descends again,
and, on alighting, instantly recommences as before,
again, I think, over a slight hollow. The motion is
equally violent, but not so long continued, some
seven or eight flings, perhaps, in all. At the end
of it he stops still, advances the head straight for-
wards, lowering it a trifle, swells the feathers, and
broadly fans the tail. Then the two birds fly at each
other, but almost in the act of closing they part, with
a little twitter, and commence hopping over the warren

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 71

as before. It is a constant little run of hops, a pause,
and then another little run of hops, each bird follow-
ing the other about in turn, the distance between
them being, as a rule, from two or three feet to
five or six paces.

"3.10. — Another little fly up into the air, followed
by the frenzied dance on descending. Then the two
come together in the mouth of a rabbit-burrow, fly
at each other as before, separate again almost imme-
diately, and continue their hopping over the warren,
the one still dogging the other.

"3.30. — The two fly at each other as though to
fight; but, again, just as they seem about to meet,
they avoid, and quicker than the eye can follow they
are a yard or so apart One of them then dances
violently from one depression of the soil to another,
arching the space between the two ; at the end of it
he fans out the tail and stands looking defiantly at
his rival, who fans his and returns the glance, then
makes a little run towards him, sweeping the ground
with it. Instead of fighting, however, which both
the champions seem to be chary of, one of them
again runs into a hollow — this time a very shallow
one — and begins to dance, but in a manner slightly
different He now hardly rises from the ground, over
which he seems more to spin in a strange sort of
way than to fly — to buzz, as it were — in a confined
area, and with a tendency to go round and round *
Having done this a little, he runs quickly from the
hollow, plucks a few little bits of grass, returns with
them into it, drops them there, comes out again,

* Very like the action of the nightjar when disturbed with the young
chicks,

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72 BIRD WATCHING

hops about as before, flies up into the air, descends,
and again dances about

" At*" about four the female reappears, flying from
the warren towards the same willow-tree where she
had before sat She perches in it again, and after
remaining but a short time, flies down, and once
more becomes invisible. Shortly afterwards one of
the male birds flies to a little distance, but whether
towards her or not I cannot say. He then rises into
the air and descends with a twittering song, upon
which the other one, who has remained where he
was, does so too. The two are now a good way
apart, but the distance is soon diminished till they
are again quite near, when one of them flies away,
then turns and flies back again and settles not quite
so near. As he does so, the other one flies in an
opposite direction, and at the end of his flight rises
into the air with the twitter-song and descends, when
the other immediately does the same, just as before.
Then again they hop, now this way, now that way,
but always diminishing the distance, till at length
not more than some three or four feet separates
them. But it must not be supposed (and this applies
throughout) that the birds seem to have any sinister
intention, or even any impertinent curiosity, in regard
to each other. They do not advance openly to the
attack, but get to close quarters in a very odd sort
of way. Seeming for the most part to be uncon-
scious of each other's presence, hopping constantly
away from and approaching one another but ob-
liquely, they in reality dog each other's steps and
keep a constant eye on each other's movements.
When at length there is but this short space be-

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 73

tween them, they stand for a moment looking at
each other, yet without any very warlike demonstra-
tion. Then, all at once, one darts upon the other —
so swiftly that I cannot be sure whether he flies,
hops, or does both — and there is now a fierce and
prolonged fight For a moment or two they are in
the air (though not at any height), then struggling
on the ground, when one, getting uppermost, holds
the other down. At last they separate, and for a
few seconds stand close together as though recover-
ing breath. Then, as by mutual consent, they retire
from each other to a short distance and hop about
again in the same manner as before. One of them
then again flies singing into the air, and on coming
down dances, but to this the other does not respond,
and now all goes on in the usual way, the birds
getting once or twice again quite close, but separating
without fighting. At half-past four there is another
twittering flight into the air, and a dance on descent,
which is emulated in a few minutes by the rival bird.
Shortly afterwards one flies a considerable way off,
but is followed almost at once by the other, and the
same thing goes on. Then there is another flight
and song with, this time, no dance on descent, but,
as though to make up for this omission, on the next
occasion, which is some few minutes afterwards, there
are two distinct transports on alighting, separated by
a short interval. On this occasion the bird did not
sing either in ascending or descending.

" Here some other birds claimed my attention, and
I was away for a quarter of an hour. On returning,
at a quarter to five, I found the two wheatears still
together, and precisely the same thing going on.

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74 BIRD WATCHING

Shortly after five they again fought, but this time
entirely in the air. They mounted, fighting, to a
considerable height, descended, still doing so, and
separated in alighting. Afterwards both of them
sang whilst on the ground, and then one mounted
up, still singing, and danced when he came down.
At half-past five I could only see one of the birds,
and this one I noticed to run several times in and
out of one of those sandy depressions I have spoken
of, and which seem to play such a part in these
curious performances. A little later both of them seem
gone, but now, at a quarter to six, as I am about to
follow their example, I again see them, in company
with the hen. She shortly runs a little away from
them, the two males remaining together, but making
no further demonstration. In a little, one of them
flies to her, and these two are now in each other's
company, singing, flying, and twittering, for some ten
minutes. It would seem as though she had made
her choice, and that this was submitted to by the
rejected bird, but just before leaving at six o'clock
all three are again together."

It is to be observed here that these two birds,
though they were in active and excited rivalry for
the greater part of an afternoon, and though they
made many feints and, as it were, endeavours to
fight, yet only really fought twice, seeming, indeed,
to have a considerable respect for each other's prowess,
and "letting I dare not wait upon I will" during
most of the time. Perhaps they were brave, but
the* idea given me by the whole thing was
that of two cowards trying to work themselves up
into a sufficient degree of fury to overcome, for a

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 75

moment or two, their natural timidity. "Willing
to wound, but yet afraid to strike," seemed to me
to describe their mental attitude.

Much has been said as to the pugnacity of
birds, but I think that a large amount of timidity
often mingles with this pugnacity, even in the most
pugnacious kinds. I have seen, for instance, two
pheasants sit, first, face to face, pecking timidly at, or
rather towards, each other, and then, on rising, make
various little half-hearted feints and runs, one at
another, as though trying to fight and not being
able to, and this for quite a long time. At last one
of them ran to some distance away, and then, turning,
made a most tremendous, fiery rush down upon the
other one, like a knight in the tilt-yard. Nothing
could have looked bolder, more spirited, more full of
fire and fury, but — just like these wheatears — at the
very moment that he should have hurled himself
upon his foe he swerved timidly aside, and all his
brave carriage was gone in a moment And what
struck me (and, indeed, as humorous) was that this
other bird — the one thus charged down upon — who
had been just as timid, and had seemed to find
fighting equally difficult, did not retreat, as one
might have expected, before this great show, but
sat quietly, as knowing it to be " indeed but show,"
and that there was nothing really to fear. In fact,
it was like the drawing of swords between Nym and
Pistol in Henry V.> each being afraid to use his,
and knowing the other to be so too. Black-cocks,
again, are often very ready to avoid a conflict, and
dance much more fiercely than they fight. A bird,
indeed, which is a very demon in the "spiel" or

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76 BIRD WATCHING

"lek-platz" may, as I have seen, become meek and
retreat from it upon the entry of another, which other
is then, of course, ipso facto, the boldest bird in exist-
ence. Blackbirds are considered to be quarrelsome,*
and I know that even the hens — or, perhaps,
they especially — will sometimes fight in the most
vindictive manner. But, as with these wheatears, I
have seen in the case of rival cock blackbirds a
great deal of chariness of real fighting mingle with
much ostentation of being ready to fight

I am not, of course, disputing the pugnacity of
birds during the breeding season and often at other
times. That is quite beyond doubt, and proofs or
instances of it are altogether superfluous. But the
pugnacity is all the greater if, in order for it to
assert itself, a greater or less degree of timidity,
varying, of course, in different species and individuals,
must first be overcome. Assuming that this is
sometimes the case (and I know not how else such
instances as I have given are to be explained), is
it so unlikely that rival birds, wishing to fight yet
half afraid to, and being thus in a state of great
nervous tension, should fall into certain violent or
frenzied movements, into little paroxysms of fury,
as when a man is popularly said to "dance with
rage"? Anything that excites highly tends to
exalt the courage and conquer fear, as we know
with our own martial music, to say nothing of the
"pyrrhic" and other dances. It seems possible,

* Whereas the thrush (it is usually added) is peaceable. But this is one
of those passed-on things with which natural history is burdened. From
my own experience, I know it to be otherwise. I have watched
thrushes fighting furiously, not only with one another but with the
blackbird also.

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 77

therefore, that such violent movements as are here
imagined might have this effect, and thus, though
excited* originally by rage — or some high state of
emotion — only, might be persisted in and increased
through experience of their efficacy. But if this
does ever happen, may we not have here the origin
— or one of the origins — of those undoubted displays
made by the male bird to the female, on which the
theory of sexual selection is chiefly based? That
the male birds should, in the beginning, have con-
sciously displayed their plumage, in however slight
a manner, to the females, with an idea of it striking
them, seems improbable, and, even if we might
assume the intelligence requisite for this, the theory
of sexual selection supposes the beauty of the plumage
to have been gained by the display of it, not that
the display has been founded upon the beauty. Then
what should first lead a bird of dull plumage con-
sciously to display this plumage before the female?
A mere habit of the male, increased and perfected
by the selective agency of the female (as this is ex-
plained by Darwin), has hitherto — as far as I know
— been considered a sufficient explanation of the
origin and early stages of such displays as are
now made by the great bustard, the various birds
of paradise, or the argus pheasant But if we can
show a likelihood as to how this habit has arisen
we are, at least, a step farther forward, even if a
slight difficulty has not thereby been removed.

Now, with regard to these wheatears, it will, I
think, be admitted that the little frenzies of the
male birds — as I have described them — were of a
very marked, and, indeed, extraordinary nature, and

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78 BIRD WATCHING

also, perhaps, that it is more easy to look upon
them as sudden bursts of excitement — nerve-storms
or emotional whirlwinds, so to speak — than as dis-
plays intended to attract the attention of the female
bird. Certainly there was nothing like a set display
of the plumage ; and, with regard to the female, the
question arises, Where was she, at least during the
greater part of the time? The two male birds in
the course of their drama got over a considerable
amount of ground, and constantly flew from one part
to another, so that, in order to have had anything
like a good view, the female must have accompanied
them, and I must then, perforce, have seen her, which
I did not, except on the occasions related. She was,
therefore, not with them, and, if watching them at all,
could only have been doing so from such a distance
that the dancings of the male birds would have been
very much thrown away. Yet that she took some in-
terest in what was going on appears likely from her
flying up twice into the willow tree during its continu-
ance, and being with the two rivals at the end of the
day. She might, too, have been listening to the song
and observing the flights up into the air, which would
have been much more noticeable from a distance.

One might expect a female bird to take some
interest in two male ones fighting for her merely,
without any adjunct, and if they added to the fighting
peculiar violent movements, such as those here de-
scribed, that interest would tend to become increased.
Now I can imagine that with this material of violent
motions on the one side and some amount of interested
curiosity on the other, the former might gradually
come to be a display made entirely for the female,

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 79

and the latter a greater or lesser degree of pleasur-
able excitement raised by it with a choice in accord-
ance, which is sexual selection. And that the display
would come at last to be made intelligently, and
with a view to a proposed end — as in the case sup-
posed of the female wild duck (or other bird) diverting
attention from its young — I can also understand. In
both instances mere nervous movements due to a high
state of excitement would have been directed into a
certain channel and then perfected by the agency
either of natural or sexual selection.

On this view the curiosity (passing insensibly into
interest and satisfaction) of the female bird would
have been directed, at first, not to the plumage but
to the frenzied actions — the antics — of the male, and
he, on his part, would have first consciously displayed
only these. From this to the more refined apprecia-
tion of colours and patterns may have been a very
gradual process, but one can understand the one
growing out of the other, for waving plumes and
fluttering wings would still be action, and action is
emphasised by colour.

Where, however, such movements had not been
seized upon and controlled by the latter of these two
powers — *>. sexual selection — (and there is no
necessity that they should be), we should have antics
not in the nature of sexual display properly speak-
ing, but which might yet bear a greater or less
resemblance to such. That this is, in fact, the case
has been pointed out by the opponents of sexual
selection, and often as if it were evidence against it
(though no one, unfortunately, can point to men as
a ground for disbelief in armies). Mr Hudson, for

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8o BIRD WATCHING

instance, in his very interesting work, " The Naturalist
in La Plata," after bringing forward a number of
cases of curious dance-movements (or of song), per-
formed by birds, and which are, in his opinion, not
to be explained on the theory of sexual selection,
says, in regard to other cases brought forward by
Darwin in support of that theory :

" How unfair the argument is, based on these care-
fully selected cases gathered from all regions of the
globe, and often not properly reported, is seen when
we turn from the book* to nature, and closely consider
the habits and actions of all the species inhabiting
any one district!"

Now, had Darwin been of opinion that antics per-
formed by a bird which could not, or could not
easily, be explained by his theory, were fatal to it
in other cases — if he had thought that the one was
inconsistent with the other — then, no doubt, it would
have been unfair on his part to have marshalled the
affirmative evidence without concerning himself with
the negative. But why should he have held that
view, or on what good grounds can such a view be
maintained ? As well might it be argued — so it
appears to me — that woollen or other goods could
only have been produced through the action of the
loom, or some such special machinery. But let the
wool be there, and it can be worked up in various
ways. Mr Hudson would account for all such displays
or exhibitions by " a universal joyous instinct" present
throughout nature, but to which birds are more
subject than mammals. I do not dispute the instinct
—or rather, perhaps, the emotion— or that some of

* Bat from which " book " ? Not, I sappose, from Darwin's alone.

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 81

the displays in question may be due to it simply
and solely: but I cannot believe that all are. Why
should this be the case, or how can movements which
are often of a complex and elaborate nature be
explained solely by reference to some large general
factor, such as joy or vital energy? These may lie
at the root of all ; but something else, some more
special process is, I think, in many cases required.
One would not be content to explain all the pheno-
mena of history by a reference to human nature, and
though it may be true, as the Kaffirs say, that in a
cattle-kraal there can only be one bull, yet nature
is a good deal larger than a cattle-kraal. I believe
myself that various antics which are performed by
birds have grown out of various nervous, excited, or
automatic movements arising under the influence of
various special causes. Two such possible causes —
viz. (i) sudden alarm whilst incubating, and (2)
paroxysms of rage or nervous excitement during
rivalry for the female I have already indicated. Two
other possible ones have also been suggested to me
by some of my observations, and I will now, by the
aid of these, make an attempt — I daresay a lame
one — to throw light on the possible origin of a
very extraordinary case of bird -antics, described
by Mr Hudson in the work I have mentioned, and
which is believed by him to be unique.

The bird in question is the spur-winged lapwing,
and the following is Mr Hudson's account of its
performances : —

" If a person watches any two birds for some time —
for they live in pairs — he will see another lapwing,
one of a neighbouring couple, rise up and fly to them,
F

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82 BIRD WATCHING

leaving his own mate to guard their chosen ground ;
and instead of resenting this visit as an unwarranted
intrusion on their domain, as they would certainly
resent the approach of almost any other bird, they
welcome it with notes and signs of pleasure. Ad-
vancing to the visitor, they place themselves behind
it ; then all three keeping step begin a rapid march,
uttering resonant drumming notes in time with their
movements, the notes of the pair behind being emitted
in a stream, like a drum-roll, while the leader utters
loud single notes at regular intervals. The march
ceases ; the leader elevates his wings and stands erect
and motionless, still uttering loud notes; while the
other two, with puffed-out plumage, and standing
exactly abreast, stoop forward and downward until
the tips of their beaks touch the ground, and, sinking
their rhythmical voices to a murmur, remain for some
time in this position. The performance is then over,
and the visitor goes back to his own ground and
mate, to receive a visitor himself later on."

Now the most curious point in this remarkable
performance, so well described, is that three birds —
a pair (male and female), and one other, whether male
or female is not stated — take part in it, and how is
this fundamental peculiarity to be explained better on
the theory of "a universal joyous instinct" than on
that of sexual selection, if, indeed, the former one helps
us so well ? Joy, no doubt, is there, but something else
— some shaping force — is surely required to account
for the particular form in which it finds expression.
Now with regard to the peculiarity pointed out — the
odd bird (though all act oddly) — I have, whilst
watching birds in the early spring, been struck by the

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 83

frequency with which three of the same species will
be seen in each other's company, usually chasing one
another about, and, as with the spur-winged lapwing,
these three are almost always made up of a pair
(a male and female) and another bird, a male, as
I believe. It may be said that here there can be
no analogy, for that it is either merely a case of
two males courting one female, or that the odd male
is both a rival and intruder, endeavouring to come
between the married happiness of two who have made
their choice. This latter explanation is the one that
has generally seemed to me to meet the case, but
what I have frequently noticed with surprise is that
the state of anger, or, indeed, fury, which one might
imagine would obtain under such circumstances be-
tween the two male birds, is either wholly absent,
or very much subdued. Now it is in the case of our
own peewit, more than with any other species, that
I have noticed this quite amicable association of three
birds, two of which would often seem to be a paired
couple, and as my notes, made whilst I had the birds
under observation, both illustrate the point and con-
tain the explanation of it which I have to offer, I will
here quote from them:

"February 25/*. — Three peewits in company with
each other. Two are flying close together, as though
they were a paired couple, whilst one follows them at
a short interval.

" February 27th. — Three peewits flying together in
the same way as before — that is to say two, which
may be paired birds, are close together, whilst there
is commonly a short space between them and the
third one. This arrangement may be temporarily

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84 BIRD WATCHING

suspended or reversed by the bird that has been
separated getting up to the other two, when one of
these will often fall behind, so that now the bird
which was the follower makes one of the two
advanced ones, whilst one of these has taken its
place. As there is no sexual distinction in the plum-
age of peewits,* it is impossible to be quite sure to
what sex each of these birds belongs, but I believe
that two of them are male and female, and the third
a male, either of the two males being alternately in
the close company of the female. This, indeed, may
be in the nature of the matter. The pairing off of
the birds, we will suppose — as is likely at this time —
is not yet completed, and, assuming two of the three
to be of one sex, it may not be quite settled with
which of them the third will pair. It is not, indeed,
necessary to suppose that either of the three will even-
tually pair with one of the others, though this may be
probable. But what appears to me to obtain is this,
that the association of two birds (male and female)
together has a tendency to bring up a third, pre-
sumably a male, who envies this arrangement, and
would fain itself make one of the two. But how,
then, is the amicableness— or, at any rate, the absence
of any marked evidence of hostility — to be accounted
for? I believe that at this early season the sexual
feelings have not yet become fully developed, or so
strong as to produce jealousy to any active extent
Things are only beginning, the emotions are, as yet,
in their infancy, and thus, I believe, the curious, not
fully defined nature of the actions of the three birds
— their seeming to be half unconscious of what they
* For ordinary field observation at least

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 85

really want or mean — may be accounted for. As the
season advances, the tendency will be more and more
for the two birds (but I here speak of birds generally)
to avoid, or actively to drive away, the third, and for
the third to find another bird for a partner, the whole
being tempered by the character both of the species of
bird and the individual birds belonging to it The
three birds being thus brought together, without the
feelings being of a very strong or defined character,
and the feelings of animals generally being, as I
believe they are, of a very plastic nature (by which
I mean that they pass easily from one channel into
another), I can understand a sort of sport or game of
three birds together arising, at first almost impercep-
tible, till, by the fundamental laws of evolution —
variation and inheritance — it might pass into some-
thing highly peculiar, as in the case of the spur-
winged lapwing — for though such sport might com-
mence in the air, there would be no reason why it
should not pass from thence on to the ground. And
that the number should be three, and not more, is
thus also explained, for whilst the sight of a paired
male and female bird would be likely to excite the
sexual feelings — even though, as here supposed,
somewhat languid— of another male, so as to make
it join them, three together- would hardly have this
effect in an equal degree, and, moreover, more than
three would tend to become a flock, when other
feelings would come into play. However this may be,
I have, as a matter of fact, been struck with the fre-
quency with which, in the early spring, three birds will
keep together, as and in the manner before stated."
This, it will be observed, was written at a time of

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86 BIRD WATCHING

year when peewits are only beginning their nuptial
antics, though, as to their having begun them, there
is no doubt, as I had carefully noted this at a still
earlier date. But long subsequent to this, and when
the theory of a not fully developed state of the sexual
feelings could no longer be tenable as an explanation
of non-combativeness, I noticed, or thought I noticed,
a more than usual tendency in this species for a
single bird to project itself, so to speak, into the
midst of a married pair, and for its presence not to
be resented, but rather otherwise. If this be really
so— for, of course, I may be deceived — it is interest-
ing, and perhaps assists the suggestion which I have
offered as to the origin of the astonishing conduct
of the spur-winged lapwing, the two being such near
relations. When the habit had once commenced, it
might continue and become fixed, irrespective of
season.

But it may be said that all the evidence which I
here bring forward is of three birds being together,
and that there is none as to any sport or antic, of
however incipient or rudimentary a nature. I have,
however, often seen peewits sport and wanton in the
air in threes, but I admit that more evidence in this
direction is wanted. The little that I have, and will
here give, relates, not to the peewit, but to two birds
very different both to it and to each other. The first
of these is that attractive and delightful little creature,
the dabchick or little grebe (Podiceps fluviatilis), a
bird whose society I have always cultivated to the
best of my ability. My first note, taken on 14th
December, I give merely by way of showing that
sexual feelings in birds may not always lie entirely

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 87

dormant, even in the depth of winter; for, from
having long watched the same birds in the same
little reedy creek, I feel sure that the two I here
chronicle were male and female.

These were " pursuing each other, first over the
water — fly-flapping along the surface in their peculiar
way — then on and under it, ducking, coming up close
together, ducking again, and so on, flapping, ducking,
and swimming, each in turn. It is very sustained
and animated, suggesting an amorous pursuit of the
female by the male, even at this time of year. They
make a great noise and splashing, they are obstre-
perous, and a hen moor-hen standing staidly on some
bent reeds gives a look as though doubtful of the
strict propriety of such conduct, — in the winter, — then
with an ( Ah, well! dabchicks will be dabchicks, I
suppose, at all times,' resigns herself to the inevitable,
and takes to preening her feathers." In the other
case, which is the one that bears more directly on
the question under discussion, three dabchicks pur-
sued each other in this manner, one behind the other,
and following the course of the stream. The last
bird was particularly energetic, and seemed deter-
mined to interfere with the pursuit of the foremost
by the one just in front of him. " When quite near
me they all three pitch down and instantly dive. The
first to come up stops dead still on the water, looking
keenly and expectantly over it, his neck stretched
rigidly out, his head darting forward from it at a right
angle, as rigid as the neck. The instant another one
appears, he dives again with a suddenness as of the
lid of a box going down with a snap, and this other
one has seen him at the same time, and dives still

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88 BIRD WATCHING

more quickly, if that were possible — so quickly that
there is just a swirl on the water, the appearance
seems part of the disappearance, ' and nothing is but
what is not 1 And this, as I think, continues, but
owing to the rapid progress of the birds under
the water, and their getting amongst flags and
weeds, I never have an equally 'convincing* sight
of it."

Now, here, on the 4th February, we have, as in
the case of the peewits, three birds together, all in
pursuit of each other, but two, as it appeared to me,
in a little more intimate association, and the third
seeming to wish to make a third. They chase each
other excitedly down the stream for a little, then all
pitch down upon it and dive, and one, upon coming
up, dives again at the merest sight of another who
behaves similarly, a peculiarly set and rigid attitude
being adopted by the waiting bird. Is this not some-
thing like a little romp or water-dance following on
the excitement of the chase? True, it may have been
fighting between the two males, for dabchicks, like
the great crested grebe and other water-birds, prob-
ably fight by diving and attacking each other beneath
the surface. To my eyes, however, it had very much
the appearance of a romp, or, at anyrate, a something
betwixt sport and earnest Assuming it to have
been so, then here is a habit of a sport or antic be-
tween three birds at the end of an excited chase of
each other. Now supposing this habit to increase,
then, as the birds became more enamoured of their
little sport — as it became more and more a fixed
habit with them — is it not likely that the preliminary
chase before the romp began would be thrown more

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 89

and more into the background ? The more one enjoys
a thing, the more eager is one to begin it, and as
here, the longer the chase lasted, the longer must
the romp at the end be postponed, the tendency
would be for the former to become shortened and
shortened, till at length it ceased altogether, the
approach of the one bird getting to be associated
in the minds of the other two with the sport or game
alone. In the final stage this last might be extra-
ordinary in a high degree, but every trace of its
origin, as here suggested, would have vanished. And
so strongly might the habit or instinct of thus romp-
ing a trots be now implanted, that one of any pair
of birds would be ready to join any other pair, and
they to receive him, in order to indulge in it.

I can, indeed, see no reason why birds that sported
well should succeed in life better than others, but if
such sporting were an outcome of general vigour, and
vigorous birds were selected, their sportings . would
be selected also. And that movements of this sort
would tend sooner or later — if only by mere prefer-
ence — to fall into some sort of form, also seems not
unlikely. It will be remembered that what I have
just recounted took place early in February, whereas
the dabchick does not, in my experience, commonly
build before May. One would not, at so early a
period, expect to find the jealous and combative
feelings of the male in regard to the female bird fully
awake, but if there were apt to be occasional sudden
outbursts of this — little flare-ups, inducing appropriate
action for a few moments and then passing quickly
away — the birds might be left, as it were, surprised
at themselves and not quite knowing what had started

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90 BIRD WATCHING

them off. The originating cause would have ceased
or subsided, but the excitation consequent on the
bodily activity which had been thus aroused would
require a further outlet, and this might pass in time
into some prescribed play or antic which might after-
wards be indulged in for its own sake.

My other instance is that of the oyster-catcher. If
anyone will watch these birds closely, he may see
three of them go through a performance bearing the
same sort of resemblance to that of the spur-winged
lapwing, that the combs of the humble-bee do to
the more perfect ones of the hive-bee. He may
see, for instance, two standing side by side with their
heads bent forwards and downwards, as the two lap-
wings bend theirs, though here the length of the
brilliant, orange -red bills, the tips of which, also,
almost touch the ground, make the angle of inclina-
tion a much lesser one. In this attitude they both
of them utter a long, continuous, piping note, of a
very powerful and penetrative quality, sometimes
swaying their heads from side to side as though in
ecstasy at their own performance, and seeming to
listen intently in a manner strongly suggestive of
the musical connoisseur. The third bird, who is
obviously the female, either stands or walks at a
short distance from the two pipers, who will fre-
quently follow and press upon her, and then, though
the march is not quite so formal and regular, it yet
bears for a few moments a considerable resemblance
to that of the spur-winged lapwing, as described and
figured in Mr Hudson's work. Of course, there is
really no march at all in the proper sense of the
word, but there is the occasional resemblance, and

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 91

the resemblance suggests the origin. In the case of
the spur - winged lapwing the play is commenced
by one bird of a pair flying to another pair, and
thus making the trio. There is the same kind of
rough and imperfect resemblance to this in the way
in which these oyster-catcher trios commonly open,
but as an account of what I actually saw may give
a better idea of how the birds act than can a mere
generalisation, I will illustrate the last point, as well
as those others which I have mentioned, by this
means.

"When one of the male birds — standing near the
female — commences thus to pipe, the other one, if
on the same rock, runs excitedly up to him, and
pushing him out of the way so as to occupy almost
his exact place, pipes himself, as though he would
do so instead of him. The other, however, is not to
be silenced, but standing close by him the two pipe
together, throwing their heads from time to time
in each other's direction, and then back again, in a
frenzy or ecstasy, as though they were Highland
bagpipers of rival clans piping against each other,
and swinging their instruments as they grew inspired
by their strains. Continuing thus to act, the two
male birds approach and press upon the female. She
flies to a corner of the rock, the two, still piping
vigorously, follow and again press upon her. She
flies down upon a lower ledge of it, the two pipe
down at her from above. She flies from the rock,
they half raise their heads, and cease to pipe, then
with single querulous notes, and in their ordinary
attitude, walk disconsolately about

" After some ten minutes the female flies back again.

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92 BIRD WATCHING

The demeanour of the two birds is at once visibly
affected, and they begin to pipe again, though not so
vigorously as before. They continue to do so, more
or less, at intervals, the third bird (the female) remain-
ing always passive, and never once piping. All at
once one of the two pipers flies violently at the other,
who flies off, and is closely pursued by him. They
alight — it would seem together— on the edge of a
great rocky slab, but are instantly at some little
distance apart, looking at each other and bearing
themselves after the manner of rivals. How they
separated, whether as recoiling from a conflict, or
avoiding it, I cannot now say. The movements of
birds are often so quick, that the eye, though it may
follow, forgets them as they pass. On another occa-
sion, a bird close to where I sit, on hearing the pipe
from a rock a little off the shore, becomes excited,
pipes for a moment itself, and then darts off to the
rock. On alighting, he instantly runs to the piping
bird, and the two pipe together to a third, exactly
as before. This third one, silent and unresponsive,
soon flies away. The piping instantly ceases, and
the two birds assume normal attitudes.

"The note of the male oyster-catcher when thus
courting the female differs both from its ordinary one,
and, as I think, from that of the female. The usual
note is a loud 'wich, wich, wich/ or some similar
sharp, penetrative cry, constantly reiterated. The
pipe is a much more wonderful affair, and, though
harsh, is like a real composition. It is of long con-
tinuance, beginning with something like 'kee, kee,
kee, kee, ker-vie, ker-vie, ker-vie, ker-vie, ker-vie/ a
loud and ear-piercing clamour. Gradually, however,

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 93

it sinks, becoming in its later stages quite faint, and
ending, commonly, in a sort of long-drawn-out,
quavering trill which the bird seems to pause upon
with pleasure. Holding down its head all the time,
it seems to drink in every tittle of the sound, and to
strive to give it its full and just expression. So much
has it, whilst doing this, the appearance of a musician,
and so much does the long, straight, orange bill re-
semble a pipe it is playing on, that if fingers were to
appear there of a sudden, and begin to 'govern the
stops/ one would hardly feel surprise — for a moment
or two. A point to be noted is that the piping bird
is not always turned towards the female he is courting,
even when close beside her. He turns towards her,
commonly (perhaps always), when he begins, but
having once begun, he seems more enthralled by his
own music than by her, and will turn from side to
side, or even right round and away from her, as
though in the rhythmical sway of his piping."

Here, then, at last, we have upon our own shores,
and amongst our own birds, an unmistakable case
of a display or performance of a very marked char-
acter, in which three birds are present, though one
takes only a passive part The motive power here
is obviously sexual; two males are, at least to all
appearance, courting one female. But I made at
the time this special observation, that, though the
rival birds did, upon two occasions, fly at each other,
and though the piping of one always brought the
other over to him to pipe in rivalry, yet, when once
they began to pipe vigorously, their interest seemed
to become centred in, and, as it were, abstracted into
this. The actual display, in this case vocal, seemed

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94 BIRD WATCHING

to have become, or to be in process of becoming, of
more importance than the emotion which had given
birth to it, the essence seemed merged into the form,
the book had become its binding. I suggest that
this may be sometimes actually the case in nature,
that a movement, or a note, or series of notes, may
become itself so all-absorbing as to demand the whole
consciousness of the bird who, in performing it,
forgets the why and the wherefore of the perform-
ance. Let this process once commence, and certain
movements — antics — performed at first with*a definite
object, might be gone through at last for themselves
alone, the object having become now merely to per-
form them. In this case, we should have a pure antic
or display, the reason of it being unobvious and its
origin a puzzle. Such a principle, if it exists, might,
perhaps, be called the "law of the formalisation of
actions once purposive " (which sounds learned
enough), and perhaps traces of it may be seen
amongst ourselves. What, for instance, are our
civilised dances except movements which have be-
come quite formal and meaningless, but which once,
as in the war-dance of the savage, had an intense
significance ? The analogy is not quite perfect, unless
we could show that actual war, for instance, had some-
times passed into a dance. Whether this has ever
been the case with man I do not know, but I believe
that it may have actually happened with some birds,
for which idea I will further on adduce my, perhaps,
somewhat slender evidence. But, coming back to
the oyster - catchers, I can understand that under
such a law as this, the actions of the two male birds
in regard to the female might gradually get to be

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WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 95

of a quite formal and non-courting nature, and, though
I will not here try to indicate the steps by which the
female bird might gradually enter into the dance-
movements or the song, they do not seem to me
impossible to conceive of. The number of per-
formers, however, having once become fixed, would
be likely to continue, through habit, as long as no
other influence arose to affect it

The fact that it was in the early days of July, when
the true courting-season should have been over, that
I witnessed these movements, may perhaps strengthen
the above view.

In seeking to explain such performances as those
of the spur-winged lapwing in this latter way, one
must assume the number of three birds to have
originated in accordance with general principles, and
that first there has been a real courtship of the female
bird by two males, the antics proper to which have,
at last, become stereotyped into a formal dance or
display. This, however, would not exclude the pos-
sibility of what I have suggested in the case of the
dabchicks and common peewit, and I believe myself
that it is not by one only, but by many causes, that
the many curious antics of birds are to be explained.

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CHAPTER V

Watching Gulls and Skuas

THE oyster-catcher brings us to the sea, so to sea-
birds I will consecrate the next few chapters.

Gulls and skuas are best watched on some lonely,
island, where they breed, and thither we will now
transfer ourselves.

They breed together, or, more strictly speaking,
conterminously, and more than half of the whole
island — all that part where it is a peaty waste
clothed with a thin brown heather — is now, in early
June, their assembly ground and prospective nursery.
The gulls are in much the greater numbers, and all
o( them here are of the black-backed species, mostly
the lesser of the two so named, but with a fair sprink-
ling of the greater black-backed also. Lying down
and sweeping the distance with the glasses — for near
they have risen and float overhead in a clamorous
cloud — one sees everywhere the bright, white dottings
of* their breasts, soft - gleaming amidst the uniform

96

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 97

brown of the heather. They are not at all crowded,
but scattered widely about at irregular and, for the
most part, considerable intervals. There is rarely a
group, and though many pairs may be seen standing
closely together, yet this is the exception rather than
the rule. Most birds of such pairs as are present are
some three or four to a dozen or twenty yards apart,
whilst the greater number of the whole assembly stand
singly, the bird nearest to each, at a much greater
distance, being one of another pair. This is because
the partner birds are for the time being absent, but
every now and again one may be seen to fly up and
join the solitary one, whilst, similarly, one of a couple
will from time to time fly off and leave the other
alone. Thus, though the eye will distinguish at any
time many paired couples, to the majority of the
birds it will not be able to assign a partner with
certainty. But this varies very much. On some
occasions there will be many more close couples than
on others, and it is when this is the case that the
gullery has the most pleasing appearance. Here
and there one sees a bird, not standing, but couched
closely down amidst the heather. These birds have
laid, and are now hatching, their eggs. For the most
part they are alone, but as the season advances and
they become more and more numerous, the partner
may often be seen standing near the nest, and pre-
senting every appearance of a joint interest and
proprietorship in it

When a bird flies up to its partner it usually comes

down close beside it The two will then be together

for awhile, but soon they either walk or fly to a little

distance from one another. After remaining apart

G

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98 BIRD WATCHING

for a longer or shorter time they visit again, then
again separate, and so they continue to act, at longer
or shorter intervals, till one or other of them flies off
to sea.

This system of making each other little visits and
then going away and remaining for some time apart,
seems a feature of the gull tribe generally, and it is
particularly marked in the case of the great skua. A
pair of these birds will each have its apartments,
so to speak, and, by turns, each will be the caller
on or the receiver of a call from the other. Either,
one will walk or fly directly over to where the other
is standing or reclining, or it will make several
circling sweeps before coming down beside it, or
else — for this is another fashion — each of them will
set out to call on the other, and meeting in the
centre between their respective places, have their
gossip there.

However the meeting takes place, when the birds
are together one of them will commonly bow its head
down towards the ground in a heavy sort of manner,
whilst the other stands facing it with the head and
bill lifted into the air. All at once one of the birds —
usually, I think, the caller, if either has remained at
home — turns round, raises its wings above its back,
and holding them thus, makes a heavy sort of spring
or running leap forward along the ground. This it
does several times, lowering the wings each time that
it pauses, and raising them again to make the leap.
From this it might be thought that the bird flew
rather than leapt, but this, when I saw it, did not
appear to me to be the case. It did not fly, but
only jumped with the wings held up. The birds

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 99

are now apart again as before, but after a short in-
terval the one that has behaved in this odd way
returns, and they again stand vis-a-vis, regarding
each other, but this time without so much bowing
or raising of the head. Then one of them — and
I think it is the same one — turning as before,
there is almost an exact repetition, and this may
take place some three or four times in the course
of an hour.

The two will then often take wing and fly for a
while together, sometimes over the sea, but more
often in a series of wide circles round and about
their home. They are masters of flight, and, after
two or three flaps, will glide for long distances with-
out an effort, alternately rising and sinking, varying
their direction by a turn of the head or, as it seems,
by presenting the broad surface of their wings to the
different points of the compass, and sweeping either
with or against the wind, apparently with equal ease.
Or, with the wind blowing violently (its normal state),
they will neither advance nor recede, and it is cer-
tainly a very surprising thing to see one of these
great sombre - plumaged birds hanging motionless,
or almost motionless at but a foot or so above the
long coarse grass, which is being all the while bent
and swayed in the direction towards which its head
is turned ; if it advances at all, it is against the bend
of the grass.

But though I have said that the great skua is a
master of flight, I have not yet termed its flight either
graceful or majestic. For a long time, indeed (during
which I had only seen it near its temporary home),
I was unable to do so, not, at least, with a full con-

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ioo BIRD WATCHING

viction, for though I admired it, yet there seemed
always to be in it some want which I felt, but was
unable to define. It puzzled me, but at last I dis-
covered what it was, and my discovery, which acquits
the bird and is to the honour of nature, I will give
as I wrote it down directly after I had made it

" One of the great skuas has now flown right out
to sea. There its flight, which is peculiar, becomes
instantly very graceful. Descending with a sweep,
which, though majestic, is yet soft and gentle, it
seems about to sink upon the waves, when, almost as
it touches them, it glides again softly upwards, to
descend once more in the same manner. Thus, ever
rising and sinking, seeming always about to rest, yet
never resting, it glides, tireless, and seems to coquet
with the sea. On land, too, these wide circling sweeps
had had a grace and charm, but it had not entirely
pleased the eye. Something had been absent, but
what that something was, it had been beyond me to
say. Now, I knew it What it wanted had been the
illimitable plain of the ocean which, in a moment, took
away all heaviness from the form and all harshness
from the colouring. The sombreness of the sea
blends now with its own, and the waves are moving
with its own motion. All is in harmony, the picture
has found its frame." Gulls, too, are more graceful
when they sweep over the sea than the shore near it
They have then softness and expanse as a back-
ground. The latter, I think, is the more important,
and may be unconsciously demanded by association
of ideas. Earth had not been wide enough for the
great skua.

Often when one of the great skuas is circling

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 101

round, and the other standing at its post, this one
will stretch itself up and raise its wings above the
back every time its partner passes. This raising of
the wings enters into one of the most salient of the
many nuptial antics of this bird, which I will now
describe. In its completest form it commences
aerially. "The two birds have been circle-soaring
one above the other, and are now at a considerable
height above one of their chosen standing-places,
when the lower one floats with the wings extended,
but raised very considerably — half-way, perhaps,
towards meeting over the back — an action which, in
their flight, is uncommon. As it does this it utters
a note like 'a-er, a-er, a-er* (a as in 'as'), upon
which, as at a signal, the other one floats in the same
manner, and both now descend thus, together, to the
ground. Standing, then, the one behind the other,
at about a yard's distance and faced the same way,
both of them throw up their heads, raise their wings
above their backs, pointing them backwards, and
stand thus for some seconds fixed and motionless,
looking just like an heraldic device. At the same
time they utter a cry which sounds like 'skirrr'
or 'skeerrr.' The foremost bird then flies off, and
is instantly followed by the other."

If the wings were not extended, this pose would
somewhat resemble that of the great plovers, for
though the neck is stretched more forwards, it is
curved in the same curious way, and the head, though
held high, is bent towards the ground. The wings,
however, give it quite a different character, and I have,
I feel sure, seen some figures of birds on a shield
whose attitude bore a wonderful resemblance to that

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102 BIRD WATCHING

of these skuas. May not some of the figures of
animals in heraldry have come right down from
savage times, even if they do not represent totems?
Savages, as we know, catch the more salient and
strongly characterised attitudes of animals with won-
derful truth and force.

The two birds will often (as might be expected)
assume this pose without any previous descent on up-
raised wings, and, presumably, such descent need not
be followed either by this or any other special attitude.
Also, when so posing, they do not always stand in
line, but indifferently sometimes, as far as relative
position is concerned, though at the same approximate
distance from one another. I have seen the descent
followed by the pose, but not in line, and I have seen
the pose exactly as I have described it, but not pre-
ceded by the descent

Obviously (or, at least, in all probability), the birds
would be as likely to stand in line when posing on
one occasion as on another, and I have therefore put.
them into line here to give a picture of this nuptial
sport when at its best and fullest

Sometimes during these visits that the birds pay
to each other, the two will bend their heads down
together and pick and pull at the grass. When they
raise them there may be a blade or two of it in the
bill of one, which is allowed to drop in a negligent,
desultory way. Or one, which I take to be the
female, plucks up a tuft and walks with it to the male
as though to show him. She lets it drop, and then
both birds, standing front to front, lower their heads
at the same time and utter a shrill though not a loud
cry. This seems as though one bird were suggesting

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 103

to the other the propriety of building a nest, but it
may be the actual manner in which the nest is built.
There would, of course, be no doubt as to this, if the
birds — or one of them — were to continue thus to pluck
and bring tufts or blades of grass. But this was never
the case when I saw them, nor did I ever remark any
action on their part that had more the appearance of
systematic nest-building than this. The nest of the
great skua is very slight, a mere pressed-down litter
of coarse long grass, shallow, and having a pulled,
tattered look round the edges suggestive of the
crown of a shabby straw hat or bonnet from which
the remaining portion has been torn. Compared to
it, the nest of a gull, being formed of quite a con-
siderable quantity of bog-moss and heather, basin-
shaped, and fairly regular and with well-formed, soft,
cushiony rim all round it, is almost a work of archi-
tecture.

Yet neither do gulls seem to work regularly or
systematically in the building of their nests. One
may be seen piking into the ground with its powerful
beak and then withdrawing it with a tuft of moss
or a sprig of heather held between the mandibles.
After making a few sedate steps with this the bird
lays it down, but instead of fetching some more, now,
and continuing the work, it merely stands there and
appears to forget all about it. Another will fly up
with some material, and, after circling a little above
its partner on the ground, will alight and lay it down
as a contribution beside it, in a very stolid sort of way.
The other bird does not help, and does not seem par-
ticularly interested, and the two now stand side by
side for about half-an-hour, when the one that has last

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104 BIRD WATCHING

arrived flies away, and, on returning again, brings
nothing. Sometimes a gull may be seen walking
with moss or heather in the bill, whilst its consort
walks beside it, but without having anything. When
the heather is placed by the one bird, the other stands
by and seems interested, but does not assist, and no
further supply is brought. It would appear, therefore,
that only one bird — and this, no doubt, the female —
actually builds the nest, though the other — the male
— may look on and take a greater or less amount of
intelligent interest in what she is doing. But though
the above is from the life it hardly seems possible that
gulls could get their nests done at all if they worked
no better than this. When I first got to that island
" de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme," but few eggs
had yet been laid and many of the nests were only
half finished, or not even so far advanced as that
Most, however, were completed, or nearly so, and it is
probable that what I saw represented merely the
finishing touches, which will also apply to the great
skuas.

What I saw was, indeed, very little, and it is only
a surmise that the female gull builds the nest without
being aided by the male. I think so, however, because
usually, when both the male and female assist in the
building, they work together, and whilst collecting the
materials keep more or less in each other's company,
arriving with them either at the same time or shortly
after each othfer. This, at least, has been the case with
those birds which I have watched. I have, indeed,
seen two gulls pulling up the moss or heather within
a yard or so of each other, and these I at first put
down as a married couple. This, however, was not

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 105

the case, for they laid down what they pulled in
different places, and several times they attacked each
other and fought quite fiercely. With other birds, too,
I have noticed a kind of rivalry between the females
when collecting materials for the nest. Hen chaf-
finches seem particularly jealous of each other in this
respect They pull the lichens from the trunks of
trees, fluttering up against them, and using both their
claws and beaks, and when thus engaged, or when
flying off with what they have got, two will often fly
at each other and fight furiously in the air. I do
not % think that the one tries to take what the other
has collected — there ought, one would think, to be
enough for all — but, rather, that the sight of one when
thus occupied, has an irritating effect on the other,
and so it seemed to be with these two gulls.

Male gulls fight, too, as might be expected, the
motive being usually, if not always, jealousy. Some-
times a little drama may be witnessed, as when a pair
who would fain be tender are annoyed and hampered
by a rejected suitor — the villain of the piece. This
odious bird advances upon them with a menacing
and, it would almost seem, a scandalised demeanour
every time that he detects the smallest disposition
towards an impropriety of behaviour, and when the
husband - lover rushes furiously upon him he flies
just out of his danger, and acts in the some way on
the next occasion, which is immediately afterwards.
This goes on for some time, the envious bird becoming
more and more rancorous and more and more torn
between rage and discretion every time valour assaults
him. At last rage carries it, and, strange to say, —
considering it as melodrama — he, the villain, makes

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106 BIRD WATCHING

quite a spirited stand against the " good " hero, who,
by all the laws of such things, should fell him to the
ground and spurn him, so as to make the orthodox
situation. Instead of this there is an equal combat
which ends only in " nothing neither way," except that,
as the bad gull still goes on afterwards, it is more in
his favour than the other's. He wins, in fact, for the
lovers are at length wearied out, and the contemplated
impropriety never does take place. It is a pity almost
that it cannot sometimes go like this in stage reality.
To see the hero, just when most reeking with noble
utterance, put suddenly into an unshowy position by
the "hound" or the "cringing cur" would be a
glorious thing, a delightful — almost a Gilbertian —
denouement One could applaud it "to the very
echo that should applaud again," but one never gets
the chance — or, rather, one would not if one tried, for
I will not suppose that anyone with a taste for nature
affects the melodrama — or even the drama nowadays.
Gull-fights are sometimes very fierce and deter-
mined, and when this is the case they often cause
great excitement among a number of others. As
on the human plane, fights between birds make
impressions upon one according to the greater or
lesser amount of intensity manifested, becoming some-
times quite tragic in their interest Not only is this
the case with oneself, but birds that are not fighting
seem affected in the same way. I have noticed this
with partridges somewhat — but more in the gullery.
An ordinary scuffle between two birds attracts
little if any notice from the others, but when it is
sustained and bitter, supported with great courage on
either side, there may be quite a crowd of excited on-

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 107

lookers. I have seen a very desperate combat which
I at first thought was a general scrimmage. It was
not so, however. Two alone were engaged, but a cloud
of gulls swept over and hovered about them, often
hiding them from view. All were interested, and inter-
ested, it seemed to me, against one of the two birds
who stood all the time on the defensive, beating or
trying to beat off with wings and beak the continual
eager rushes of his assailant Many times they closed
and went struggling and flapping over the ground,
attended all the time by gulls in the air and gulls
walking about and near them. When they disengaged,
the same bird — as I inferred from the dramatic unity
of its conduct — attacked again in the same eager way,
as though the greater vivacity of its feelings or disposi-
tion made it always more quick than the other, though
this one was equally brave and determined. One
might almost fancy that the attacking gull had had
some great wrong done it by the one it attacked.
This latter, however, a powerful and steady fighter,
finally beat off its assailant, who now took to the air.
Sweeping backwards and forwards above the hated one,
it made each time that it passed a little drop down
upon it with dangling legs and delivered, or tried
to deliver, a blow with the feet, a strategy which the
other met by springing up and striking with the beak.
Such a conflict as this makes quite a commotion
in the gull world, all those birds that have been
standing anywhere in the neighbourhood flying and
circling excitedly about above the combatants, or
settling and walking up to them. I did not see the
casus belli> so merely assume it to have been jealousy
between two rival males. Quite possibly the birds

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108 BIRD WATCHING

were females. In none of these fights, nor in others
that I have seen between black-backed gulls on the
island, did there seem to be any special set method
either of attack or defence, as is so noticeable in the
case of some birds. It was a generalised fight — "a
pankration" — in which each bird did whatever it
could without art or plan. A fight between two
herring-gulls that lasted a long time was of another
character. "They fought most savagely, but in a
curious manner. Each seized the other by the beak,
which they then (or one of them) endeavoured to
extricate by pulling backwards, so that the stronger
bird, or each alternately, dragged the other over the
ground, a process which the one being dragged tried
to resist by spreading the wings at right angles
and opposing them to the ground. To me it seemed
that one of the birds had each time seized the other
to advantage and strove to retain its hold against the
efforts of the less fortunate one to disengage. The
length of time during which they remained with the
beaks thus interlocked was remarkable. I was not
able to time them, but it was so long as to grow
tedious, and I several times turned the glasses on to
other objects and, after a short interval, brought them
back again, always finding them as before. A quarter
of an hour, or, at the very least, ten minutes, would not,
I think, be an over-estimate of the time they some-
times remained in this connection. The instant the
beaks were unlocked the birds fiercely seized each other
by them, again, there was the same dragging and
resistance, the same lengthy duration, and this was
repeated three or four times in succession. At length
there was a very violent struggle, and the bird that

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 109

seemed to have the advantage in its hold, by advanc-
ing upon the other while never relaxing this, forced
its head backwards and at length right down upon
its back, the bird so treated being obviously much
distressed. At last, with a violent effort, this latter
got its bill free, and the two, grappling together, and
one, now, seizing hold of the other's wing, rolled
together down the steep face of the rock. At the
bottom they separated. The bird, as I think, that
had had the worst of it all along flew back to the
place from which they had fallen, while the other
remained, seeming somewhat hurt by the fall. Some
time later there was another conflict between the same
two gulls which was similar in all respects, including
the place at which it was fought, except in its ending.
This time there was no fall down the rock, but the
one bird flew off, soon, however, to alight again, the
other one pursuing and continuing to molest it with
savage sweeps from side to side."

No doubt, in a fight like this, each bird seizes the
other by the beak, as fearing what it might other-
wise do with it, as two men with knives might seize
hold of each other's wrists. But this might become
in time so confirmed a habit that the birds, when
fighting, would have no idea of doing anything else,
and thus not attack each other in any less specialised
way, however much one might have the other at an
advantage. I do not mean to say that it has really
come to this with the gulls in question — the facts,
indeed, do not bear out this view — but several times,
when watching birds fighting, I have seen, as I believe,
a tendency in this direction, and it has occurred to
me that the process might be carried even further.

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There was no other bird very near to these two
gulls during all the long time that they fought, no
female who was obviously the cause of the affair,
and to whom either of them went, or showed a desire
to go, either in the interval between the two combats
or at the end of it all. Yet that the two were rival
males seems hardly to be doubted, taking the season
into consideration. This — and the same observation
applies to the two wheatears who fought for hours
without the female being at all en evidence — seems
to show a power of retaining a vivid mental impres-
sion of the loved or coveted bird in her absence, to
which is added a tranquil pleasure of the paired birds
in each other's society apart from mere sensual grati-
fication. It is absurd, therefore, to keep the word
"love" to ourselves, as we do in the spirit if not the
letter. As in other things, there is no line drawn
here in nature, and it is in watching animals that
one gets to know the real meaning of all our high
terminology. It is wonderful how long two birds
who have chosen each other will stand quite motion-
less close together, as though they were a couple of
stones, and then show by some mutual or dependent
action that each is in the other's mind. Here is an
instance. " A pair of herring-gulls have been standing
for a long time one just behind the other on the edge
of the grassy slope of the cliff, quite motionless,
looking like the painted wooden birds of a Noah's
ark. All at once both, as in obedience to a common
impulse, burst into wild clamorous cries for a few
seconds and then fly out over the sea. Quite soon
they return and, settling again in precisely the same
spot and relative position, stand motionless as before,

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS in

for full three hours, when one, uttering a little
chattering, almost talking note, again launches him-
self from the verge and flies around for some three
or four minutes in the near neighbourhood, with a
frequent ' how, how, how/ He then re-settles just in
his old place behind the other, talks a little, again
flies off, returns and talks as before. The other gull
has remained motionless, or almost so, all the time,
and the two now stand silently as before." It seems
strange that the birds should first act so mutually
and then so independently of each other, but far
stranger, as it struck me, was the absolute instan-
taneousness with which, on the first occasion, they
both burst out screaming.

It is possible that close attention to animals might
lead to evidence pointing in a new and unexpected
direction, but I will leave this for another chapter.

Gulls have no very salient or pronounced courting
antics — I mean I have observed none — and, in the
same sense, there is no special display of the plumage
by one sex to the other. When amorous, they walk
about closely together, stopping at intervals and
standing face to face. Then, lowering their heads,
they bring their bills into contact, either just touching,
or drawing them once or twice across each other, or
else grasping with and interlocking them like pigeons,
raising then, a little, and again depressing the heads
with them thus united, as do they. After this they
toss up their heads into the air, and open and close
their beaks once or twice in a manner almost too
soft to be called a snap. Sometimes they will just
drop their heads and raise them again quickly, with-
out making much action with the bills. This is

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dalliance, and between each little bout of it the two
will make little fidgety, more -awaiting steps, close
about one another. Always, however, or almost
always, one of the birds — and this one I take to be
the female — is more eager, has a more soliciting
manner, and tender-begging look, than the other. It
is she who, as a rule, commences and draws the male
bird on. She looks fondly up at him, and raising her
bill to his, as though beseeching a kiss, just touches
with it, in raising, the feathers of his throat — an action
light, but full of endearment And in every way
she shows herself the most desirous, and, in fact, so
worries and pesters the poor male gull that often, to
avoid her importunities, he flies away. This may
seem odd (to non-evolutionists), but I have seen other
instances of it. No doubt in actual courting, before
the sexes are paired, the male bird is usually the
most eager, but after marriage the female often
becomes the wooer. Of this, I have seen some
marked instances. That of a female great plover
calling up the male by her cries, when pairing took
place between them, I have already given, and I have
seen precisely the same thing in the case of the
kestrel hawk. Female rooks, too, are often very
importunate with the males in the rookery when
building is going on. It is always a great satis-
faction when the male and female of a species differ
noticeably in their plumage, as then one is never in
uncertainty as to which of them it is that performs
any act. Often one must remain quite in the dark
as to this, and often, again, one can only surmise.
Of course, when one watches birds for any time in
the breeding season, one gets clear ideas as to which

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 113

is the male and which the female, but certainty is
better, and certainty, at any moment or on any
occasion, unless there is some marked difference
between the sexes, one cannot have. In the case of
gulls, however, though the plumage is alike, there is
a difference in size sufficient to strike the eye, the
male being larger — in the great black-backed gull,
greatly larger — than the female.

Leaving the palled blandishments of its spouse, the
gull husband cleaves the air, cuts the dark line of
beetling precipice, and seeks the free haven of the
open sea, where, with other sensible, repentant Bene-
dicts, it wheels and circles. Suddenly a dusky form,
slender and swallow-like, though as large as a pigeon,
shoots over the rounded bastion of the heather, and
sweeping upwards as it nears the cliffs, darts upon
one of the gulls. A second pirate follows. With
wild cries, and long, gliding sweeps, they press and
harass the larger bird, who, doubling, twisting, avoid-
ing, dodging, but never resisting, utters again and
again a cry of distress and complaint. Its com-
panions sweep and eddy about them, shooting
athwart and between. They protest, they cry to
heaven, their wild voices mingle in harsh, discordant
unison with the rock-dash of the waves, and the
everlasting notes of the wind. Suddenly something
drops from the oppressed gull. There is a sinking
towards it of one of the dark shadows — swift beyond
telling, but so soft that the speed is not realised — the
object is covered, lost, and almost with a jerk, the
eye — or rather the brain — realises that it has been
caught in the descent Empty, and now unregarded,
the robbed bird sweeps on, the pirates sweep back
H

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114 BIRD WATCHING

to the heather, the cloud of witnesses disperse them-
selves, and, as with us each day, each hour, things
smooth themselves again over the high-placed acts
of successful villainy. Who troubles over a robbed
gull ? What moral Nemesis concerns itself with the
wrongs of some cheated, done -to -death savage or
tribe of savages ? Over both there is some shriek-
ing, some eloquence at the time, but both are soon
lost in oblivion, the waves close over, the world
jogs on its way. Retribution, retributive justice —
such fine things may exist, perhaps, but, if so, it
is for showier matters. Had the skuas robbed an
albatross, something, perhaps, would have happened.
Their sin might have found them out — then. A
gull is like an Armenian, or . . . but there are so
many.

Thus closes one of nature's wild dramas. The
gulls are circling again now, and all is as before.

"Es pfeift der Wind, die M6ven schrein
Die Wellen, die wandern und schaumen."

Such a scene as the above may often be witnessed
as one lies on the heather and watches, but for one
actual robbery that one sees there will be a dozen
or so unsuccessful attempts at it. Yet, if one believes
those who have the best opportunities of knowing,
neither the great nor the Arctic skua — the latter is
the bird to which attention has just been called — ever
eat a fish that has not first been swallowed by a gull
or tern. They say, moreover — at least, this assertion
is made in regard to the great skua — that if the
booty is not secured in mid-air, but falls either on the
sea or land, no further attention is paid to it by the

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 115

robber. For myself, I believe that the skuas always,
or almost always, feed in this way, because I think
that when, in the satisfaction of such a daily and
almost constant want as hunger, some curious and
bizarre method had been adopted it would tend to
become habitual, to the exclusion of all others. Two
such different plans of obtaining fish as are, respec-
tively, swooping upon them whilst swimming in the
water, and catching them in the air upon their being
disgorged by another bird, after a chase which is
often long and arduous, could hardly be carried on
by the same bird ; for it is probable that either one,
to be successful, would have to be habitually em-
ployed, thus leaving no room for the other. More-
over, the adoption of such a peculiar method of
obtaining food at all implies a great advantage over
the older method, and this being the case it would
tend entirely to supersede it. But that the Arctic
skua, at any rate, thus habitually chases and robs
gulls one can easily satisfy oneself, nor have I ever
seen either it or the great skua stooping on fish,
like terns, gulls, or gannets.

The young of the great skua are fed entirely on
herrings, which are first swallowed by the parent
bird, and then disgorged on to the ground in the
neighbourhood of the nest. I cannot say that I
have myself seen this done, for it is impossible to
watch the nesting habits of a bird that always attacks
you when you approach its nest, and continues to
do so as long as you stay anywhere near it In these
grey desolate islands there is no sort of cover, no
tree or bush with the branches of which one can
make oneself a shelter, and watch unobserved. More-

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over, as there is no night properly so speaking, only
a portentous lurid murkiness towards midnight, which
seems neither to belong to night nor day, and in
which, as you can read small print, the skua can
very naturally see you, there is no approaching under
cloud of darkness and being there, ensconced, when
morning dawns. But that the bird disgorges the
herrings for the young ones after the manner of gulls
generally, arid does not carry them in its beak or
claws, which is contrary to their practice, there can
be no doubt Now, as every one of these herrings
has — as I believe it has — been secured in the
manner above described, it is curious to reflect that,
when finally swallowed by the young skua, it "goes
a progress " for the third time, nor would it be easy,
perhaps, to find another instance (outside this family
of birds) of prey that has been twice given up, through
fear once, and then, again, through love.

The herrings lying about the nest, and which have
thus been recently disgorged for the second time,
look almost as fresh and clean as if nothing peculiar
had happened to them. They are disgorged whole,
or nearly so ; for, as I myself observed, in the great
majority of cases the head is absent Thus at one
nest, in the neighbourhood of which (but this means
often a considerable space of ground) forty -one
herrings or their remains were lying, only ten
retained the head or any part of it At another,
where there were thirteen, all were entirely headless :
at another there were eight, of which one only had
part of the head remaining : at another ten, eight of
which were headless: at another seven, six of which
were : and at another four, of which one retained the

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WATCHING GULLS AND SKUAS 117

entire head. Thus, out of eighty-three herrings, only
fifteen had the heads to them, though the proportion
of the one to the other was different at different nests.
The heads when thus absent are entirely so— that is
to say, they are not to be found lying about
separately. That the chick should eat the head of
the herring by preference seems unlikely, and par-
ticularly when it is quite young. Yet I have seen
four herrings lying about a newly - hatched chick,
which were quite fresh and almost untouched, but
headless. The question, therefore, arises whether the
parent-bird eats the head after disgorging the whole
fish, or whether, in the majority of cases, it is dis-
gorged minus the head. Fish are, I believe, always
swallowed by birds which prey upon them, head
first, and would therefore, one would suppose, lie in
the gullet in this direction. If disgorged again tail
first, as they lay, the gills, by expanding, might offer
such resistance that the head would be in most cases
torn off. If this be so, then the skua may often
receive the fish headless from the gull, or, if other-
wise, the head would be still more likely to be torn
off, on a second disgorgement This, however, one
would think, must be a very disagreeable process for
the bird disgorging, and it would seem more probable
that the fish can be turned or shifted in the gullet,
by some muscular action on its part, so as to be
brought up head foremost, as it descended; but
whether there is any evidence as to this, I do not
know. If the head of the herring does not remain
in the gullet, then it must be eaten by the parent
skuas after ejection, and it would seem that they
looked upon this portion as their peculium, to which

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they were honestly entitled, for they seem to leave
the rest, mostly, for the chicks, of which there are,
commonly, two. At any rate, a number of the
herrings will have only a small portion eaten off
them. There is a great profusion, amounting to
waste, and there does not seem any reason why the
skuas should vary their diet during the breeding
season, as they are asserted to do, since they have
the sea always at hand, and the gulls, that are to
them as their milch cows, breed in their close
proximity.

In the skuas we see the habit of obtaining food by
forcing another bird to disgorge what it has swallowed,
perfected and become permanent, so that the birds
practising it have risen — shall we say ? — into rapacious
parasites ; but amongst the gulls themselves, who suffer
by the practice, we may see, if I am not mistaken, the
habit in its incipiency, and may get a hint as to how it
might have arisen. When fishing-smacks are in harbour
they are thronged round, sometimes, by hundreds of
gulls, all the more common kinds — viz. the lesser and
greater black-backed, herring-gulls, and kittiwakes —
being mixed and crowded together. When some offal
is thrown out, the birds that secure any are at once
mobbed, and often it is torn away from them almost
before they have swallowed a mouthful. To avoid
this, they often rise with it in the beak and get it down
as fast as they can on the wing, dodging and jerking
their head from side to side amongst the pursuing
crowd. But I have observed that the pursuit does not
always cease after the morsel has been swallowed, and
sometimes — whether rarely or frequently I am unable
to say — the oppressed gull disgorges it again, in order

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to be left in peace. Now, amongst a crowd of birds
like this, the greater number would be unable to see
whether the one they were pursuing had swallowed his
morsel or not, and would therefore keep pressing about
him in the hope of being able to snatch at it But, of
course when birds that were hustled began to disgorge,
this would be noticed and soon remembered, and they
would then be hustled so that they might do so. In
this, or in some similar way, I can understand the habit
arising without any initial act of intelligence on the
pursuing bird's part

Perhaps, however, there would be no great unlikeli-
hood in assuming such an act of intelligence. For one
gull to conceive the idea of making another bring up
what it had swallowed, might not be so very much
more than for the sea-eagle to think, in regard to the
osprey with the fish in his talons, " I'll make him drop
it" With all the gull tribe the bringing up of the
food again after swallowing it is an easy and habitual
action. Not only are the young fed thus, but I
have some reason to think that, during the nuptial
season, the presenting in this manner of some " pretty
little tiny kickshaw " by the male bird to the female is
looked upon as a chivalrous and lover-like act Perhaps
such acts are reciprocal, but I will give my two little
instances and let my readers draw their own con-
clusions. The first is the case of a herring-gull. I
was watching the mother bird (as I suppose) sitting
on the nest over two young ones, one of which had
been hatched either only that day or the day before,
and the other a day or two earlier. "At 12 o'clock a
chick moves out from under the mother, and leaves the
nest It is quite active, and has the general appearance

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120 BIRD WATCHING

of a young chicken, being fluffy and of a yellowish grey
colour, speckled with black. At 12.40 the second
young one appears, pushing itself out from under the
mother bird as she rises a little in the nest At half-
past one the male gull, which has been near all the
while, walks slowly and importantly to the nest, which
he passes and then, turning back towards it, disgorges
on to the rock a small fish, which he takes up in just
the tip of his bill and pushes towards both the chick
on the rock and the mother on the nest, all slowly and
with a dry sort of manner, as though the bird were a
cynic The mother gull leans forward from the nest
and takes it, and, first, holds it on the ground, while the
chick outside pecks at it Then she swallows it herself.
The male now produces in the same way a small some-
thing — I suppose a gobbet of fish — and draws the
chick's attention to it by touching it with his bill and
pushing -it a little towards him. The chick then
swallows it, upon which the male flies off and takes
his accustomed stand on a large projecting point of
rock close at hand." This is a conjugal, a domestic,
picture. The other, which I shall now give, and in
which the hero was an Arctic skua, was, perhaps,
"more condoling."

"The one bird stands still and upright, whilst the
other, holding the neck constrainedly down, but with
the head raised as far as is compatible with this, keeps
moving round and round it After revolving thus
several times, keeping, always, very close to and,
sometimes, actually touching the standing bird, this
one also stands still, always in the same attitude, and
opens his beak. The other one, standing as before,
now raises the head and opens the beak also, upon

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which the satellite bird, assuming, at last, his proper
height, delivers into it, from his own, something which
he appears to bring up, and this, as it seems to me, is
swallowed by the bird receiving it. The morsel is
small, but the actions of giving and taking, and, after-
wards, the movements of the beak and throat of the
bird that has parted with it, are unmistakable. This
would appear, therefore, to be a little friendly act, or,
perhaps, an act of courtship — a love-token between the
male and female bird — and I take the bird who delivers
the morsel, and who is cream-marked, to be the male,
and the other, who is uniformly dark, the female."

Skuas, as is well known, attack one if one comes
at all near to their nest, and gulls — at any rate the
two black-backed kinds — will sometimes, though much
more rarely, come very near to doing so too. For
instance, the greater black-backed gull swoops at one
backwards and forwards, in the same way .(though
more clumsily) as do the skuas, except that he neither
touches you nor comes so near. Every time he passes
he gives a loud, harsh, tuneless cry, and drops down
his legs as though intending to strike with them.
When he does this, he may be some five or six feet
above one's head— a little more, perhaps, or a little
less — and presents an odd, uncouth appearance. The
skuas swoop in silence, though the great one con-
tinually says " ik, ik " (or words to that effect), whilst
circling between the swoops. "On another occasion
two of the lesser black-backed gulls acted in this
way, though one of them continued to do so for a
much longer time. These two seemed to be angry with
each other, making little motions and opening their
bills in the air as though each thought it was the

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122 BIRD WATCHING

other's fault" This little trait, which would seem
to raise them nearer humanity, I particularly noted.
The mode of attack, when thus aerialy delivered, is
the same in all these birds, and, as it seems to me,
curiously ineffective. The beak, a powerful weapon,
is not employed, nor is a blow — which, if it were,
might be of real force — delivered with one of the
wings. Instead, the webbed feet, which would seem
to be weak in comparison, and have no talons or
grasping power, are made use of in the way I have
already described in the case of the two gulls fight-
ing, when, after the tussle on the ground, the one
was swooped at by the other.

The following account of the attack of the smaller
or Arctic skua, will apply almost equally to the great
one. "The bird comes swooping down in a slanting
direction, with great speed and impetus, and as it
passes over one's head, makes a slight drop with the
feet hanging down, so that they administer a flick
just on the top of it, as it shoots by. Having made
its demonstration, it shoots on and upwards, and turn-
ing in a wide sweep, again comes rushing down to
repeat it, and so forwards and backwards for perhaps
some half-a-dozen times, after which the intervals
will become longer, the circling sweeps which fill
them up wider and more numerous, till the attacks
cease, and the bird flies away." (The great skua,
however, will attack almost indefinitely.) " The force
of the downward rush is in all cases very great, and
the 'swirr' which accompanies it quite startling,
suggesting a larger bird, or something of a more
portentous nature altogether. In striking, the bird
shoots the feet forward as they dangle, so that they

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hit one with the anterior surface, and there is not
the slightest attempt to scratch or grasp with them.
The force that can be put into such a blow is but
slight, and, even in appearance, there is something
trivial and inadequate about it that takes away from
the effect of the bold sweep, which, in the case of
the great skua especially, strikes the imagination,
and is, indeed, a fine sight A terrific blow with the
wing, or a seizing and tearing with beak and claw,
as with an eagle, would seem the fitting sequel to
such power and fierceness."

This failure of the sublime, and falling almost into
the ridiculous, cannot be observed when one is one-
self the object of attack, and, moreover, the buffets
that one is constantly receiving, though quite out
of proportion to the size and fury of the birds, are
often so stinging and disagreeable as to spoil one
for looking at the matter from such a point of view.
A ruse, however, may be adopted, and the scales
then fall from one's eyes. For instance : " To-day I
sat down by the almost fledged chick of a pair of
great skuas, and, drawing my plaid over my head,
numbered the attacks of the parent birds. When I
began to count it was 3.13 P.M., and at 3.30 they
had made between them — turn and turn about — 136
swoops at me. Of these, 67 were hits and 69
misses. Some of the hits were very — indeed, ex-
tremely — violent, so that without the plaid I could not
have stood it, and even as it was, it was unpleasant
The blow is always delivered with the feet, though
sometimes (and pretty often as it seemed to me) a
portion of the bird's body touches one at the same
time, thus giving more weight and force to it The

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124 BIRD WATCHING

force of the swoop is tremendous, and did the bird
strike one full with its whole bulk, it would, I believe,
knock one over, as a hare, it is said, has sometimes
done by accident, in leaping over a hedge. After
this heroism, I stuck my umbrella (staff, or even
stick, would sound better, but it was an umbrella)
into the ground, arranged my plaid upon it, and walked
to a little distance. The birds, one after another,
swooped at the plaid but never hit it As they got
just above it they stretched down their legs, but at
the last moment seemed to think something was
wrong, and rose, so as just to clear it 'But out
upon this half-faced fellowship!' This dangling
down of the legs, in which the speed is checked
and the grand appearance lost, is quite pitiful. Why
cannot the birds fell you with a blow, or tear you with
the hooked beak? This would be 'Ercle's vein, a
tyrant's vein,' but a flick with the feet merely — it
is a tame conclusion!"

I doubt now, if the bird ever does strike you with the
body even lightly. It feels as if there must be more than
the feet at the time, but, probably, this is not the case.

Both the male and female of the great skua defend
the nest — and especially the young — in this manner,
but the swoopings of one of them, probably of the
female, are generally fiercer than those of the other.
In my limited experience this dual attack was almost
invariable, but in one instance the nest was guarded
by one bird alone. This bird, as though to make
up for the deficiency, was even more than usually
fierce, making long rushing swoops from a great
height and distance, which would, I believe, have
been effective each time had I not bobbed. The

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other bird circled at a still greater height, and never
once joined in the attack. The height, I m^y say,
from which the birds swoop is not, as a rule, very
considerable. The above does not apply equally
to the Arctic skua — at least in my own experience —
for though often the two birds would . attack, yet in
the greater number of cases only one of them did
so. Now the Arctic skua, as I have mentioned
elsewhere, is one of those birds which employs
strategy (begging here the question for the sake of
brevity) as well as force to defend its young, and
it occurred to me that here might be a case of co-
operation, the male bird most probably attacking,
and the female employing the ruse. I satisfied
myself, however, that the same bird sometimes does
both one and the other. How often this is so, and
whether there is a tendency on the part of either
sex to resort by preference to one or the other
method, it might be difficult to find out Yet I
cannot help thinking that this is the case, and that
a process of differentiation is in course of taking
place. The facts are — or appeared to me to be —
these. In the case of the great skua, both sexes —
almost, but not quite, always — attack, and there is no
ruse. In that of the Arctic skua both sexes some-
times attack, but far more frequently (that, at least,
was my own experience) one alone does so, and here
a ruse is employed. In the former case we just see
occasionally, as an exception, the raw material (the
non-attacking of the one bird) that might conceivably
be utilised by nature for the elaboration of another
form of defence. In the latter we may see this other
form being elaborated.

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Questions of this nature might be settled in the
future on facts observed now, as easily as a reference
to an iron ring where boats were once moored settles
the question as to whether the coast has risen or
the sea encroached. The coast and the sea, however,
remain. Birds, slaughtered by millions each year,
must cease almost as a class before any great period
has gone by. Of what use then the ring, the record
when what it speaks of is no more?

Another interesting point in the Arctic skua (which
it shares with at least one other species of the genus)
is its dimorphism — or rather, to describe it more
properly, its polymorphism. To me it seems to offer
a case of a species in course of variation from one
form into another. In the two extreme forms the
plumage is, respectively, either entirely sombre both
above and below, or the whole throat, breast and
under surface, with a ring round the neck, and more
or less of the sides of the head, is of a fine cream
colour. Between these extremes there are various
gradations, the cream being sometimes on the breast
only, whilst the throat is of a lighter or deeper grey,
more or less mottled with the still darker shade, or
the lighter colour is hardly or not at all discernible
on these parts, whilst lower down it becomes less and
less salient till it is merely a not so dusky duskiness.
The cream-coloured birds, though numerous, are in
the minority, and both this and their being much
handsomer suggests that the process of change is in
this direction, whilst the intermediate tintings may
represent the steps in this process. To what form
of selection (if to any) are we to attribute the change?
As the cream colouring makes the bird more con-

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WATCHING GUIrLS AND SKUAS 127

spicuous, natural selection (as distinct from sexual)
seems excluded, unless it could be shown that the
change of colour is correlated with some still greater
advantage, and this is neither apparent nor likely.
There remains sexual selection, which to my mind is
strongly suggested. The modified colouring is, it is
true, shared by the two sexes, but this is quite com-
patible with the theory, which supposes the tintings
of the male kingfisher and numerous other brilliant
birds to have been thus acquired and transmitted in
each stage of progress to the female. It would, there-
fore, be interesting, though, no doubt, difficult, to
determine by observation whether the creamy-coloured
male birds were on an average more attractive to the
females than the other kind, and also whether the
more handsome form was increasing. In regard to
the last point, this was the opinion of a man guiltless
of theories, but with a large amount of experience of
the birds.

Of these two species of skua, the great and the lesser
or Arctic one, the latter appears to me to be the
boldest and most aggressive. It will chase not only
gulls, but ocasionally the great skua also, this last, as
it would seem, for sport or pleasure rather than for
any particular object In the same way they often
chase each other. A too near approach to the nest
may, perhaps, be the reason in either case, but having
watched them attentively I do not think that the
pursuing bird is often under any real apprehension.
Gulls are persecuted by them in the manner I have
described, and sometimes, I think, also in mere wanton-
ness. The larger ones seem never to resist, but the
kittiwake will sometimes go down upon the water.

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BIRD WATCHING

turn to bay, and drive the robber off. Gulls seem to
fear the great skua less than the Arctic one, and will
sometimes mob and molest it A single pair that had
nested on the outskirts of a gullery were a good deal
subject to this annoyance. One and then another
gull would pursue them when they flew near, and
sometimes even swoop at them from side to side as
they stood upon the heather. But I never saw them
annoy the Arctic skuas in this manner. The latter,
however, were much more numerous.

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«rr

CHAPTER VI

Watching Ravens, Curlews, Eider-ducks, etc,

A PAIR of ravens on our island are also molested
by the gulls, and when either of them flies from one
point to another of the coast in their neighbourhood
its path is marked by a constant succession of "annoy-
ing incidents " of this nature. That these stately birds
should have to put up with rudeness from mere gulls
does not seem right ; but so it is, nor did I ever see
either of the two make any serious attempt to over-
awe them. Personally, I must say that I was at first
so little impressed by these ravens, that for a long
time I did them the injustice of looking upon them
as carrion crows. Certainly, the hoarse, bellowing
croak which they uttered as they flew round when
disturbed by me impressed me and made me wonder,
but their size appeared altogether incompatible with
the state of being a raven. I suppose the great frown-
ing precipices over which they commonly circled had
I 129

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a dwarfing effect upon it, but they were manifestly
smaller than any of the gulls which molested them,
and this I was not prepared for from the specimens
which I have seen in museums or languishing in
captivity. That they were ravens however, is, I
think, certain from the very peculiar croaking note
to which I have alluded, and which they uttered at
this time almost constantly.

When I came to the island these birds had
already hatched out their young, of which there
were four lying in a loose cradle of what looked
like sticks, but could not have been, since these
were nowhere procurable. It was a mass of
something having the general appearance of a
battered and flattened rook's nest, but what the
actual materials of which it was constructed were,
I am unable to say. The nest was on a ledge
half-way down the face of a huge precipice
forming one side of a fissure in the coast-line — the
mouth of an immature fiord— dug out in the course
of ages by the slow but ceaseless sapping of the
sea. From the summit of the opposite side I
could look across at and down upon it, having an
excellent view. The young birds — five in number
— who were well fledged, and within, perhaps, a
fortnight of leaving the nest, lay in it very flatly
with their wings half spread out, and so motion-
less that for some time, upon first seeing them, I
almost thought they must be dead. The sudden yet
softly sudden rearing itself up of one with an ex-
pressive opening of the beak — expressive of " surely,
surely, it must be meal -time again now" — gave a
delightful assurance that this was not the case, and

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then there were more such risings and expressed
convictions. At intervals only, however, for it was
wonderful how still the young birds would lie for
quite a long time, and so closely inwoven within
the cup of the nest that it was only when they
stirred that five became a possibility. The ledge
being quite bare and open, the nest with the young
in it, making a black bull's-eye in the midst of a
great sheet of white, was conspicuously apparent.
Several times I saw the young birds move them-
selves backwards to the inner edge of the nest, and
then void their excrements over it, so that only a
little of the quite outer portion was contaminated.
By this means the nest is kept clean and dry, whilst
all around it is defiled. It would seem as though
this power of ejecting their excrements to a distance
which various birds possess was, sometimes at least,
in proportion to the size and bulk of the nest which
they construct The nest of the shag, for instance
(and in a still greater degree that of the common
cormorant), is a great mass of seaweed and other
materials, and the force with which the excrement
is shot out over this, both by the young and the
parent birds, astonishes one, as does also its upward
direction. I had always felt surprise when seeing
cormorants and shags perform this natural function
whilst standing on the rocks, but it was not till I
had watched the latter birds for hour after hour,
as they sat on their nests, that I understood (or
thought I understood) the significance of it In
spite of the popular saying, it does not seem prob-
able that all young birds act in this way, and
many nests are so constructed that it would hardly

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132 BIRD WATCHING

be possible for them to do so. In most cases every-
thing necessary for sanitation or convenience could
be effected afterwards by the parent birds, but
this would not be the case with ravens and cor-
morants, or with other such carnivorous or fish-
eating species. Perhaps, therefore, the power which
I speak of may stand in joint relation to the diet
and habits of the bird, and the kind of nest which
it builds.

I made many attempts to witness the feeding of
these young ravens by their parents, but owing to
there being no kind of cover from which I could
watch, and no means of erecting a proper shelter,
I was unable to do so. I did what I could by means
of pieces of turf, and a plaid or waterproof stretched
over them, but this was not sufficient to allay the
suspicions of the old birds, who had always seen me
as I came up, and from my first appearance over
the brow of the hill flew around croaking and croaking,
awaiting impatiently the moment of my departure.
It would have been difficult not to sympathise with
them, not to feel like an intruding vulgarian amidst
that lonely wildness. For my part, I never tried
not to, but yielded at once to die feeling, and retired
each time with the humiliating reflection that the
scene would be the better without me. Yet it seems
strange that in any scene of natural beauty or
grandeur, the one figure — should it happen to be
there — that has the capacity to feel it is just the one
that puts it out Scott, for instance — though he were
Scott — would not have t improved any Highland bit,
and Shakespeare's Cliff would hardly have looked the
better for the presence even of Shakespeare himself.

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The samphire-gatherer, however, would have blended
artistically, but neither he nor a kilted shepherd or
clansman would have had any more appreciative
perception of the beauties into which they fitted,
than the " choughs and crows " themselves, the sheep,
or the majority of tourists.* It is not a matter of
clothes alone. It would seem as though one must
stand outside of a thing, and therefore be out of
keeping with it, before one can feel and grasp it,
though, heaven knows, the one need not involve the
other.

But, though I missed the feeding, I twice saw the
raven mother — the real one — cling on to the side of
the nest and look in upon her young ones, who rose
and greeted her hungrily. That was a glorious thing
to see. There was something in the bird's look almost
indescribable, a blending — as it seemed to me — of
cunning, criminal knowledge combined with light-
headedness, and strong maternal affection. With the
first two of these, and with the stately, yet half
grotesque action, the bright, black eyes, and steely,
glossy - purpling plumage (it never looked black
through the glasses), a faint, flitting idea, as of the
devil, was communicated, enhancing and giving
piquancy to the delight. She hung thus for some
moments, seeming to enjoy the sight of her children,
yet all the while having her black, cunning eyes half
turned up towards myself. Then she flew away,
joining her mate, who had waited for her some way

* Scott, however, credits the Highlanders — I mean the rank and file —
with an artistic appreciation of the scenery amidst which they lived (see
V Rob Roy" ). I should bow to such an authority, but confess I find it
hard to believe.

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134 BIRD WATCHING

off at the accustomed place on the cliffs. It was
when I saw her like this, and when the glasses
isolated her from the general of rock and sea, that
this raven seemed to assume her true size and dignity,
and to become really a raven. When she flew it
was different Her sable pinions beating against the
face of the precipice added no effect to it, but she
was instantly dwarfed and dwindled, and became as
nothing, a mere insignificant black speck, against its
huge frowning grandeur.

Though, really, their plumage is all of gleaming,
purply blues, at a little distance, and when they fly,
ravens look a dead ugly black, which is also the
case with rooks, who are almost equally handsome
when seen closely. Their flight is peculiar, and
though it strikes the imagination, yet it cannot be
called at all grand or majestic in the ordinary sense
of those words. The wings, which are broad, short,
and rounded — or at any rate present that appearance
to the eye — move with regular, quick little beats, or,
when not flapped, are held out very straightly and
rigidly. When thus extended, they are on a level
with or, perhaps, a little below the line of the back,
and from this, in beating, they only deviate down-
wards, and do not rise above it, or very triflingly so,
giving them a very flat appearance. A curious curve
is to be remarked in the anterior part of the spread
wing, at first backwards towards the tail, and then
again forwards towards the head. All the primary
quills seem to partake of this shape, and they are also
very noticeably disjoined one from another, so that
the interspace, even whilst the wing is beaten, looks
almost as wide as the quill — by which I mean the

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whole feather — itself. I tried to imagine the effect
of a number of these sombre, quickly-beating pinions
with the short eager croak, having something of a
bellowing tone in it ("the croaking raven doth
bellow for revenge " ) over the wide-extended carnage

Raven : The Game of Reversi

of an ancient battlefield, and I thought I could do
it pretty well — in spite of the difficulty, in the present
day, of conjuring up such scenes.

But, though the ordinary flight of ravens be as I
have described, it does not at all follow that they
may not sometimes soar or sail for long distances
through the air, or descend through it at great speed,
and with all sorts of whirring and whizzing evolutions.

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136 BIRD WATCHING

For all these things do the rooks, and yet their ordinary
flight is of a heavy and plodding character. One very
peculiar antic, or " trick i' the air," the raven certainly
has. Whilst flapping steadily along with regular,
though quick beat of the wings, it closes these all at
once, quite tightly, as though it were on the ground,
and immediately rolls over to one side or the other.
Either the roll is complete, so that the bird comes
right round again into its former position, or else,
having got only so far as to be back downwards, it
rolls back the reverse way. This has a most extra-
ordinary appearance. The bird is stretched horizon-
tally in the position in which it has just been flying,
and in rolling over makes one think of a barrel or a
man rolling on the ground. Being in the air, how-
ever, it may, by dropping a little as it rolls, make
less, or, possibly, no progress in a latitudinal direction,
though whether this is the case or not I am not
sure.

To watch this curious action through the glasses
is most interesting. Each time there is a perceptible
second or two during which the bird remains com-
pletely Ifeversed, back to earth and breast to sky.
The appearance presented is equally extraordinary,
whether it makes the half roll and returns, or goes
completely round. I have sometimes seen rooks make
a turn over in the air, but this was more a disorderly
tumble, recalling that of the peewit, and, though
striking enough, was not nearly so extraordinary as
this orderly and methodical, almost sedate, turning
upside down. The feat is generally performed four
or five times in succession, at intervals of some seconds,
during which the steady flight is continued. Most

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 137

often it is done in silence, but sometimes, at each
roll over, the raven cries "pyar," a penetrating and
striking note.

Sometimes these ravens would roll in this manner
whilst pursued by or skirmishing with a gull, and
once I saw one of them do so during a curious kind
of skirmish or frolic — it was hard to tell its exact
character — with a hooded crow. Whether the hooded
crow turned itself almost at the same time in a manner
somewhat or entirely similar, I am not quite sure, but
it struck me that it did do so. Of course, one may
very easily just miss seeing the action of a bird
clearly, especially if there are two or more together,
and it is then, often, very annoying to be left with no
more than an impression, which may or may not be
correct It is more satisfactory, almost, to see nothing
than not to be sure, but both impression and doubt
should be stated, for both are facts, and should not
be suppressed. But on no other occasion have I
seen a hooded crow behave in this way, though I
have watched them often. Once, but only once, I
saw one indulging in an antic which was sufficiently
striking, but of quite a different character. This bird
would spring suddenly from the ground, mount up
almost perpendicularly to a moderate height, and
then descend again on the same spot or close to it,
making a sudden lurch and half tumble in alighting.
It did this some dozen times, but not always in so
marked a manner, for sometimes the mount or tower
was not straight up from this spring — as a mountain
sheer from the sea — but arose out of what seemed
an ordinary flight over the ground. As it descended
for the last time another crow flew up to and

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alighted beside it in a manner which seemed to
express an entry into its feelings. This was in
East Anglia, on the last day but one of February,
and I look upon it as a premature breaking out
of the nuptial activities before the birds had taken
wing to their more northerly breeding-places. As
to these aerial antics of the ravens, I doubt if they
were strictly nuptial, on account of their performance
of them whilst skirmishing with gulls, or with the
hooded crow.

These two ravens were most devoted guardians of
their young, and they pursued a plan with me — for
I was the only intruder on their island — which was
well calculated to blind me* with regard to their
whereabouts, and would certainly have succeeded in
doing so, had not the nest been so openly situated,
and such a conspicuous object They took up their
station daily — and in this they never once varied — at
a point on the cliffs considerably beyond the place
where they had built their nest, and which commanded
a wide outlook. As I came each morning along the
coast, which rose gradually, I became visible to them
whilst tbout as far from their nest on the one side
as they were on the other, and the instant my head
appeared over the brow of the hill they rose together
with the croaking clamour I have mentioned, and
circled about round their own promontory. This
strategy could hardly have been improved upon had
it been carefully thought out by a man, for in the
first place my attention was at once directed to the
birds themselves, and then if the likelihood merely of
there being a nest had occurred to me, that part of
the cliffs from which they rose, and about which they

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 139

wheeled, would have seemed the most likely place
in which to search for it No doubt, had the nest
been well concealed, the birds would have done better
not to have shown themselves, but conspicuous as it
was, they could hardly have adopted a better plan
of getting me away from just that part of the coast
where it was situated.

I have spoken in the last chapter of the extreme
boldness of the smaller of the two skuas, and how,
, whether in sport or piracy, he chases birds much
larger than himself. It was, therefore, something of
a surprise to me when I observed one morning this
bold buccaneer being himself pursued by another bird.
This was one of a pair of curlews, birds that are as
the spirit of the sad solitudes in which they dwell.
It is, indeed, more as a part of the scene — that tree-
less, mist - enshrouded waste beneath grey northern
skies, which they emphasise and add expression to—
than in themselves that one gets to consider them.
Just thickening with a shape the dank, moist atmos-
phere, seeming to have been strained and wrung out
from the mist and rain and drizzle, they are, at
most, but a moulded, vital part of these. They move
like shadows on the mists, when they cry, desolation
has found its utterance. And yet, for all this, their
general appearance, with their long legs and neck,
and immensely long sickle-shaped bill, is very much
that of an ibis — insomuch, that seeing them in this
bleak northern land, has sometimes almost a bizarre
effect This should seem quite irreconcilable with
the other, and yet, though it certainly ought to be,
somehow it is not, so that, at one and the same time,
this opposite bird brings a picture, by looking like

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140 BIRD WATCHING

an ibis, of Egypt and the South, and is likewise the
very incarnation of grey skies, of mist and morass.
So strangely can contradictions be reconciled in the
mind, or rather so well and impartially can we grasp
two aspects of a thing when neither concerns us
personally.

When they stand or walk slowly and sedately these
curlews hold their long, slender necks very erect, and
it is this, with the beak, that gives them their ibis-like
character. When they run they lower the neck, and
the quicker they go the lower do they hold it In
taking flight they sometimes make a few quick
running steps with raised body, as though launching
themselves on the air; but at other times they will
rise from where they stand without this preliminary.
In flight they may be called conspicuous, at anyrate
by contrast with the wonderful manner in which they
disappear simply — " softly and silently vanish away"
— when on the ground. This is by reason of their
colouring, which on all the upper surface of the body
and the outside of the wings is of a soft, mottled
brown, which blends wonderfully with, or, rather,
seems to become absorbed into the general surround-
ings of moor and peat-bog, so that they never catch
the eye, and are simply gone the instant this is taken
off them. But the plumage of the under surface of
the body and of the inside of the wings is much
lighter, and this becomes visible as the bird rises (as
with the redshank), and alternates with the other as it
flies around. It is thus — round and round in a wide
circle — that a pair of them will keep flying when
disturbed in their breeding - haunts. But though
each bird is equally disturbed and anxious, and

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 141

though their mournful cries answer each other like
two sad complaining souls, yet they keep apart, and,
on settling, do not run to each other. From the drear
slope of a hill a wail goes up, and from another hill,
or the cheerless hollow between, the sad sound is
answered. Or one will fly wailing whilst the other
wails and sits, or the two will follow each other along
the ground, but without coming very near. Thus,
in a kind of sad, solitary communion, they wail and
lament, and so exactly is each the counterpart of
the other, one might think that the prophet Jeremiah
had been turned into a bird, which had subsequently
flown asunder.

In flight the wings are for the most part constantly
quivered, with a quick and somewhat tremulous
motion, but sometimes the bird will glide with them
outstretched, and not moving, just over the ground,
before it alights, or make a steep-down descent hold-
ing them set in this manner, and so settle. There is
also a trick or mannerism of flight which is graceful,
and may be of a nuptial character. Rising to a
certain height on quivering wings, they sink down,
holding them extended and motionless. After but
a short descent, they rise again in the same quivering
way, and so continue for a greater or lesser space of
time.

The note which they utter is, first, a melancholy
"too-ee, too-ee, too-ee," then a much louder and
sharper "wi-wi, wi-wi, wi-wi" (i as in "with"), and
there are various other ones, one of which — if memory
did not trick me — is just, or very, like a note which is
but seldom heard of the great plover, " Tu-whi, whi,
whi, whi, whi" This bird is itself a curlew, so that

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142 BIRD WATCHING

the resemblance can be understood. Its affinities
with the oyster-catcher are (unless it is the other
way about) less close ; yet some part of the piping
of the latter bird reminded me strongly of the
" clamour," as it is called, of the former one. Some-
times, but more rarely, the mournful "too-ee, too-ee,
too-ee" of the curlew is followed by a note as
mournful, but louder and more abrupt This sounded
to my ear something like " chur-wer — whi-wee," but,
of course, all such renderings are arbitrary, and more
or less fanciful.

One of the strangest sounds that came to me on
that lonely island was the courting-note of the male
eider-duck. This varies a good deal, not in the sound,
which is always the same, but in the duration and
division of it Sometimes it is one long-drawn, soft
"oh" or "oo," more generally, perhaps, this is
syllabled into "oh-hoo" or "ah-oo," and often
there is a much longer as well as very distinct and
powerful " hoo-oooooo." The sound seems always
to be on the point of catching, yet just to miss, the
human intonation, sometimes suggesting a soft (though
often loud) mocking laugh, at others a slightly ironical
or surprised ejaculation. But this human element
only just trembles upon it and is gone. Rousing for
a moment the sense of man's proximity with its
attendant associations, these vanish almost in the
forming, and are replaced by a feeling of unutterable
loneliness and wildness. For what recalls, yet is
far other, enforces the sense of the absence of that
which it recalls. Yet this feeling changed too, or,
rather, with it there came another as of the unseen
world, also, I think, comprehensible, since what is

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 143

almost, yet not quite, human must needs suggest fays,
elves, elementals, and all their company. I loved the
sound. If not quite music, it was most softly har-
monious, and always, from first to last, brought into
my mind with strange insistency, those lines in the
Tempest :

"Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the King my father's wreck,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air."

Then, of course, I was on Prospero's island, though,
heaven knows, this bleak northern one was little like
it Thus can some poor bird that we murder, by
an association merely, or called-up image, as well as
by actual song,

" Dissolve us into ecstasies,
And bring all heaven before our eyes."

It was some little time before I could be quite sure
to what bird this strange note belonged. It seemed
too poetical for a duck, though, indeed, an eider-duck
is the poetry of the family. Also, it was difficult to
locate, seeming to bear but little relation to the place
or distance at which it was uttered. But I soon found
that whenever there were eider-ducks I heard the note,
whereas I never did when they were nowhere about.
At last — quite close in a little bay, as though they had
come there to show me — I " tore out the heart of their
mystery." It was a lovely sight Even the female
eider-duck, sober brown though she be, has a most

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144 BIRD WATCHING

pleasing appearance, but the male bird is beauteous
indeed. In the pure white and deep, rich black of his
plumage he looks, at first, as though clothed all in
velvet and snow. There are, however, the green
feathers on the back of the head and neck, which do
not look like feathers at all, but rather a delicate wash
of colour, or as though some thin, glazed material —
some finest-made green silk handkerchief — had been
tied round his head with a view to health by the
female members of his family. And although at first,
with the exception of this green tint, all that is not the
richest velvet black looks purest white, the eye through
the glasses, growing more and more delighted, notices
soon a still more delicate wash of green about the
upper parts of the neck, and of delicate, very delicate,
buff on the full rounded breast just where it meets
the water. These glorified males — there were a dozen
of them, perhaps, to some six or seven females — swam
closely about the latter, but more in attendance upon
than as actually pursuing them ; for the females
seemed themselves almost as active agents in the sport
of being wooed as were their lovers in wooing them.
The actions were as follows : — The male bird first
dipped down his head till his beak just touched the
water, then raised it again in a constrained and tense
manner — the curious rigid action so frequent in the
nuptial antics of birds — at the same time uttering that
strange, haunting note. The air became filled with
it, every moment one or other of the birds — sometimes
several together — with upturned bill would softly laugh
or exclaim, and whilst the males did this, the females,
turning excitedly, and with little eager demonstrations
from one to another of them, kept lowering and ex-

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 145

tending forwards the head and neck in the direction
of each in turn.

As there were a good many females in this "re-
union," the numbers of the males about any one of
them at one time was not great Some of them
were attended by only one cavalier or left quite
lonely for a time — but all kept shifting and chang-
ing. The birds kept always swimming on, and
were now all together, now scattered over a con-
siderable surface - of water. Sometimes two males
would court one hen, who would then often demon-
strate between them in the way I have described.
Often, however, the male birds are in excess of the
females, and sometimes there will be only one female
to a number of males, who then press so closely about
her that they may almost be said to mob her, though
in a very polite manner. There are then frequent
combats between the males, one making every now
and again a sudden dash through the water at another,
and seizing or endeavouring to seize him by the head
or scruff of the neck. The two then struggle together
till they both sink or dive under the water. Shortly
afterwards they emerge separately, and the combat is
over for the time. During, if not as a part of, these
nuptial proceedings, the birds of both sexes will
occasionally rise in the water and give their wings
a brisk flapping. They may also occasionally dive as
a mere relaxation, or to give vent to their feelings, at
least so it appeared to me.

The female eider-duck — as far as I could observe

— does not utter the curious note, but only a deep

quacking one, with which she calls to her the male

birds. It appeared to me that she would sometimes

K

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146 BIRD WATCHING

show a preference for one male over another, and also
(though of this I cannot be so sure), a power of dis-
missing birds from her. But if she really possesses
such a power, she cannot very well assert it when
closely pressed upon by a crowd of admirers. I
noticed, too, and thought it curious, that a female
would often approach a male bird with her head and
neck laid flat along the water as though in a very
"coming-on disposition," and that the male bird
declined her advances. This, taken in conjunction
with the actions of the females when courted by the
males, appears to me to raise a doubt as to the uni-
versal application of the law that throughout nature
the male, in courtship, is eager and the female coy.
Here, to all appearance, courtship was proceeding, and
the birds had not yet mated. The female eider-ducks,
however — at any rate some of them — appeared to be
anything but coy. As time went on and the birds
became paired this curious note of the males became
less and less frequent, and at last ceased, a proof, I
think, that the note itself is of a nuptial character,
and also that the birds at the time they kept uttering
it were seeking their mates.

I regret that I was not able to observe the further
breeding or nesting habits of these interesting birds.
A few of the females may have laid before I left the
island, but the greater number were still on the water.
One day I put one up from the heather, upon which I lay
down and waited. Soon a pair of them — both females
— flew round me and alighted together not far off.
Both then lay or crouched in the heather at a few
yards from each other. Later, whilst watching from
the coast, I saw two female eiders walking side by side

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 147

at a slight distance apart At intervals they would
pause, stand or sit for a little, and again jog on together.
These birds must, I think, have been selecting a place
in which to lay their eggs, and if so, it would seem
that they like to do this in pairs. I also saw a male
eider-duck sitting for a considerable time amidst the
heather right away from the sea. It is, of course,
impossible to mistake the sexes after the males have
assumed their adult plumage, and, moreover, this bird
subsequently flew down into the little bay just beneath
me. I say this because it is authoritatively stated that
the male eider-duck never goes near the nest It is
probable that a week or so later this bird could not
have sat where he was without being near to a nest
at any rate ; and, moreover, what should take the male
bird from the sea, or its immediate coast, at all, if it
were not some impulse appropriate to the season?
This and a statement made to me by a native in
regard to this point, which went still further against
authority, makes me wish that I had been able to see a
little more. As it is, I have only a right to ask with
regard to this one male eider-duck, " Que diable allait
il faire dans cette galere ? "

It is difficult to tire of watching these birds, ducks,
yet so wonderfully marine. The freedom of the sea is
upon them, far more than Aphrodite they might have
sprung from its foam — it is of the male with his snowy
breast that one thinks this. One cannot see them and
think of a pond or a river — yet, always, they are so
palpably ducks. It is delicious to see them heave
with the swell of the wave against some low sloping
rock — lapping it like the water itself— and then remain
upon it, standing or sitting — living jetsam that the sea

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148 BIRD WATCHING

has cast up. They ride like corks on the water, they
are the arch of each wave and the dimple of every
ripple.

Eider-ducks feed by diving to the bottom of the
sea off the rocks where it is shallow, and getting there
what is palatable. Probably this is, in most cases,
eaten under water, but whilst, as a rule, emerging
empty-mouthed, they occasionally bring up something
in their bill, and dispose of it floating on the surface.
In one case this was, I think, a crab; in another,
some kind of shell-fish. Their dive is a sudden dip
down, and in the act of it they open the wings, which
they use under water, as can be plainly seen for a
little way below the surface. This opening of the
wings in the moment of diving is, I believe, a sure
sign that they are used as fins or flippers under water,
and that the feet play little or no part

Birds, amongst others, that dive in this way are — to
begin with — the black guillemot.

" Looking down from the cliffs into the quiet pools
and inlets, one can see these little birds — the dab-,
chicks of the ocean — swimming under water and
using their wings as paddles, perfectly well. Instantly
on diving they become of a glaucous green colour, and
are then no longer like things of this world, but
fanciful merely, suggesting sprites, goblins, little
subaqueous bottle imps, for their shape is like a
fat-bodied bottle or flat flask. Great green bubbles
they look like, and so too but — larger and still
greener — do the eider-ducks." In their small size
and rounded shape, in their (Heaviness, their pretty
-little ways and actions, in everything, almost, these
little black guillemots are the marine counterpart of

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 149

the dabchick or little grebe. It is pretty to see them,
a dozen or so together. They pursue each other
under the water — in anger, I think, but it has the
appearance of sport ; it is a joyous anger. They seem
all in a state of collective excitement, and out of
this one will make a sudden dart at another, who
dives, and the pursuit is then alternately under or
on the water, and sometimes just skimming along
it on the wing, exactly as dabchicks do. Yet the
black guillemot is a fair flier, having to ascend the
precipices, and the dabchick too, for the matter of that,
can if he chooses rise into the air and fly seriously.
There are three modes of delivering the attack in
fighting. In the first two the one bird either just
darts on the other when quite near, in which case there
may be a slight scuffle before either or both disappear,
or flies at him over the water from a greater or lesser
distance and often very nearly gets hold of him, but
never quite. Invariably the other is down in time,
if it be only the justest of justs. The third plan,
which is the most rus/, is for the attacking bird to
dive whilst yet some way off, and, coming up be-
neath his " objective," to spear up at him with his bill.
And so nicely does he judge his distance that he
always does come up exactly where the swimming
bird was, — not is, for this one is as invariably gone.
Yet this plan must sometimes be successful, though
I did not see a case in which it was. At least, I
judge so by the precipitation With which the bird on
the water when he saw the other one dive — as he
always did, and divined his intention — flew up and
off to some distance. In just the same way have I
seen the great crested grebe rise up and fly far over

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BIRD WATCHING

the glassy waters of the sun-bathed lake — but still
more precipitately, and, indeed, in disorder, for he
rose not alone from the surface but also from the

Crested Grebe

well-aimed spear-point of his successfully-lunging
antagonist Whether the little dabchicks also, as
well as the crested grebes, attack each other in this
manner, I cannot from observations say, but from the
relationship it would seem probable.

Razorbills also dive briskly, opening the wings

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 151

and with a kick up, as it were, of the legs and tail.
If one sits on a height and they come sufficiently
near inshore to look down on them at an acute
angle, one can follow their course under the water,
often for a 'considerable time. One remarks then
that the wings are moved both together — flapped or
beaten — so that the bird really flies through the water.
In flight, however, they are spread straight out with-
out a bend in them, whereas here they are all the
while flexed at the joint, being raised from and
brought downwards again towards the sides in the
same position in which they repose . against them
when closed. These birds — and, no doubt, the other
divers — dive not only to catch fish, but also for the
sake of speed. I have seen them when travelling
steadily along the shore duck down and swim or
fly like this, in a straight line and but just below the
surface of the water, always pursuing the same direc-
tion, and seeming to have no difficulty in guiding them-
selves. The speed was very much greater than when
they merely paddled on the surface. Thus we may
see, perhaps, how such birds as the great auk and the
penguins came to lose the power of flight They could
fly in two ways, either through the air or the water.
The first — as long as they retained it at all, probably —
was much the quicker ; but the other was quick enough
for their purposes, and the effort required to rise from
the water was thus dispensed with. These razorbills
dived in order to get more quickly to some point for
which they were making. They might have got there
still sooner by flying, but the time saved was evidently
not worth that effort to them. But the power of flight
might be long retained by a bird — though useless to it

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152 BIRD WATCHING

in other respects — owing to its habit of laying its eggs
on otherwise inaccessible ledges of the rock.

When three or four razorbills are swimming
together, it is common for one of them to dive first,
and for the rest to follow in quick succession, some-
times so quick that the order in which they go down,
and the succession itself, can only just be followed.
They must keep together under the water as well as
above it, since they will often emerge so, after some
time, and at a considerable distance.

The guillemot dives more or less like the razor-
bill, but I have not been successful in tracing him
under the water.

There remains the puffin. "I have been able to
follow the puffin downwards in its dive, and at once
noticed that the legs, instead of being used, were
trailed behind, as in flight, so that the bird's motion
was a genuine flight through water, unassisted by the
webbed feet With the razorbill, I was not able to
make this out so clearly, for the legs are black, and
the eye cannot detect them under the water, as it can
the bright vermilion ones of the puffin (one wonders,
by the way, if the latter play any part under water such
as the white tail of the rabbit is supposed to do on land),
though I could see that just in diving they were brought
together and raised, so as to extend backwards in the
same way. Penguins also trail the legs like this in
diving, only giving an occasional paddle with them,
whilst the wings are in constant motion."

It would seem, therefore, that those diving birds
which swim with their wings under the water only
use their feet in a minor degree, and that they go
down with a quick, sudden duck, or bob, and in the

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 153

act of opening their wings. On the other hand,
cormorants, shags, and mergansers, birds which do
not use their wings in this way, dive in a quite
different manner. Instead of the sudden, little,
splashy duck, as described, they make a smooth,
gliding leap forwards and upwards, rising a little
from the water, with the neck stretched out, and
wings pressed close to the sides, to enter it again,
beak foremost, like a curved arrow, thus describing
the segment of a circle. Their shape, as they per-
form this movement, is that of a bent bow, and there
is the same suggestion in it of pent strength and
elasticity.

The shag is the greatest exponent of this school of
diving, excelling even the cormorant — at least I fancy
so— by virtue of his smaller size. He leaps entirely
clear of the water, including even, for a moment, his
legs and feet This seems really a surprising feat,
for, as I say, the wings are tightly closed, so that,
by the force merely of the powerful webbed feet, he
is able to throw himself bodily out of the sea. It
must be by a single stroke, I think, for the motion
is sudden and then continuous. The bird may, of
course, have been in ordinary activity just previously,
so that some slight degree of impetus may be sup-
posed to have been already gained, but this is un-
necessary, and the leap is often from quiescence. The
merganser dives like the shag or cormorant — though
the curved leap is a little less vigorous — and swims,
like them, without using the wings. His food being
fish, instead of getting deeper and deeper down till
he disappears, like the eider-duck, he usually swims
horizontally, sometimes only just beneath the surface,

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154 BIRD WATCHING

and, as he comes right into the shallow inlets, where
the water almost laps the shore, he can often be
watched thus gliding in rapid pursuit Though I saw
all his turns and efforts, I never could see either the
fish or the capture of it — supposing that this took
place. If it did, the fish must each time have been
swallowed, or at least- pouched, beneath the surface,
as the bird never emerged with one in his bill. There
are, of course, several different species of merganser
and goosander. I cannot be quite sure of the iden-
tity of the bird which has given rise to these observa-
tions — I think it was the red-throated merganser —
but, no doubt, the ways and habits of all the species
are either identical or nearly so.

It is interesting to find the little dabchick of our
ponds and streams diving sometimes in the manner
of the shag and cormorant, though, of course,
tempered with his own little soft individuality. I
have this note of him, taken in the frost and snow of
a cold December day whilst he sported in his little
creek just a few feet in front of me. " He gives a
little leap up in the water, making a graceful curve,
a pretty little curl, as he plunges. One sees the curve
of his back — which is something — as he spring-glides
down. The action is that of the cormorant, but,
rendered by himself, made dabchicky. Of course he
is in the water all the time ; he does not shoot right
out of it There is far less power and energy. It is
a star-twinkle to a lightning-flash, a floss ringlet to a
bended bow." And again : " He is diving now very
prettily, with a graceful little curled arch in the air
before going down."

I say that the dabchick sometimes dives like this,

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 155

for he has many ways of doing so, and it is not very
often that he will repeat the same thing twice in
succession. Sometimes he dips so smoothly and
still-ly down that one seems hardly to miss him from
where he was ; there is just a swirl on the stream —
which seems, now, to represent him — and that all but
silent sound, so cool and pleasant, as of water sucked
down into water. Or, swimming smoothly down the
current, he stops suddenly, brings the neck stiffly and
straightly forward, with eye fixed intently, severely
on the water — piercing down into it as though making
a point — and then down he goes with a click, almost
a snap, flirting the water-drops up into the air with his
tiny little mite of a tail. I have seen it stated, I think,
that the dabchick has no tail, or that he has no tail
to speak of. I shall speak of it, for I have seen it
enter largely into his deportment When, as I say,
he dives like this, suddenly, it may be flirted up with
such vigour that, mite as it is, it will send a little
shower of sparkling drops to 20 feet away or more.
It may be said that it is not so much the tail as the
whole body that does this. I say that the tail has its
share, and a good share, too — more, perhaps, than is
quite fair. At any rate, I have seen the prettiest
little drop of all whisked right off the tip of it, and
the sun shining more upon that one than any of the
others — and that, I think, is having a tail to speak of.
But when swimming along quite quietly, the dab-
chick's tail, instead of being cocked or flirted up like
the moor-hen's, is drawn smoothly down on the water
so as not to project and thus interfere with its owner's
appearance, which is that of a little, smooth, brown,
oiled powder-puff, "smooth as oil, soft as young

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156 BIRD WATCHING

down." The dabchick, therefore, has a tail, and
knows how to regulate it

Between these two extremes of the dabchick's
manner of diving, and independently of the little
curled leap a la cormorant, there are infinite grada-
tions, as well as all sorts of mannerisms and indivi-
dualities. But in all these I do not distinctly
remember to have seen him throw out his wings in
the act of going down.

I should be pretty sure, therefore, that he swims
only and does not fly (if this expression is permissible)
under water, if I did not seem to remember having
once seen htm do so, as I lay with my head just
over the river's bank and he passed underneath me.
But it was years ago; I have no note, and my
memory may very likely have deceived me. Pos-
sibly both in regard to this, as well as the way in
which he dives, the dabchick may be in a transition
state. His multifariousness in this latter respect
seems to render this likely. The shag, if I mistake
not, never dives in any other way than that which I
have described, unless he is really alarmed, when he
disappears instantaneously and in a dishevelled
manner.

The moor-hen, also, may follow no fixed plan in
his diving, for I have certainly seen him using his
feet only under water, and I believe I have also
seen him using his wings. Though this, too, was
many years ago I ought not to be mistaken, as the
incident made such a deep impression on me at the
time. I was standing on the bank of a little creek, or
streamlet, running out of a reedy moor-hen-haunted
river. The creek itself, however, was clear where I

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 157

stood, and all at once a strange object passed right
in front of me, swimming beneath the surface. It
was a moor-hen, but the wings used in the way I
have been discussing — a thing to me quite un-
expected — seemed to give it an entirely unbirdlike
appearance, and surprised me into thinking for the
moment that it was some kind of turtle. The legs,
I believe, were also used, alternately in a kind of
long, gliding stride, and may just have touched the
mud at the bottom. This, however — and I believe
the moor-hen often walks in this way along the bottom
rather than swims — would seem to make its use of
the wings at the same time all the more unlikely.
I have but my memory, which, as evidence after so
many years, is of little value. In all such matters
what is wanted is a note taken down at the time.
As to the actual dive down of the moor-hen, when-
ever I have seen it it has always been a sudden duck,
sometimes in a rather splashy and disordered manner,
but whether the wings were ever thrown partly open
I am not able to say. I have noted cases, however,
where they certainly were not, and this again makes
it more likely that the moor-hen in diving does not
use the wings at all. I do not know that I have
ever seen the moor-hen dive, unless it was in alarm
from having seen me; and with regard to this a
question arises which, I think, is of interest — to what
extent, namely, does diving enter into the moor-hen's
ordinary habits, how often does it do so of its own
free will? Possibly it may differ as to this in dif-
ferent localities. Jefferies, for instance, writes as
though it were always diving. Yet I have watched
moor-hens latterly, at all seasons, and for several hours

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158 BIRD WATCHING

at a time, without having once seen them do so ; so
that from seeing them thus au nature/, and without
any suspicion of my proximity, I might have come
to the conclusion that they were not diving birds at
all. As it is, I am inclined to think that they rarely
dive except to avoid danger, and only then when
surprised and as a last resource For instance, if
a moor-hen sees one from the smallest distance it
flies to the nearest belt of reeds, but if one appears
quite suddenly on the bank just above it — as some-
times happens — it will then often dive. Even here,
however, according to my own experience, it is more
likely to trust to its wings; so that, as it seems to
me, the habit under any circumstances is only an
occasional one, and may, therefore, be in process
either of formation or cessation. If we look at the
moor-hen's foot, which shows no special adaptation to
swimming, but a very marked one for walking over
a network of water-herbage, the former of these two
suppositions seems the more probable. The bird
from a shore and weed-walker has become aquatic,
and is probably becoming more so. If the habit of
diving is only becoming established, it is possible that
some localities might be more conducive to its quick
increase than others, and it would be interesting,
I think, if observers in different parts of the
country would make and record observations on
this point.

The chariness of the moor-hen in diving is the more
interesting because the coot, which belongs to the
same family, has the same general habits, and has
evidently become aquatic by the same gradual process,
dives frequently, and is accustomed to feed upon weeds

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 159

which it pulls up from the bottom of the water. Here
is an instance, in which it will also be seen that the
coot's manner of diving is very much more formed
than the moor-hen's, which may be said to be archaic.
" It dives down and reappears, shortly, with some
dank weediness in its bill, which it proceeds to peck
about and swallow on the surface. Then it dives
again, comes up with some more, which it likewise
eats, and does this several times in succession. After
five or six dives it comes up with quite a large
quantity, with which it swims a little way to some
footing of flag and reed, and on this frail brown raft
it. stands whilst picking to pieces ahd eating 'the fat
weed ' which it has there deposited. Having finished,
or selected from it, it swims to the same place again
and continues thus to dive and feed, each time coming
up with some weeds in its beak, which I see it eat
quite plainly. It is charming to see this, and also
the way in which the bird dives, which is elaborate,
studied, and yet full of ease. Rising, first, from the
water in a light, buoyant manner as if about to ascend,
balloon-like, into the air, it changes its mind in the
instant and plunges beneath the surface, having, as
it goes down, a very globular and air-bally appear-
ance. It is like the sometime dive of the dabchick,
but with more deportment and less specific gravity.
The dabchick is an oiled powder-puff, the coot a
balloon, the dabchick a small fluff-ball, the coot an
air-ball."

From this it would seem as though the coot be-
longed to the cormorant school of diving, disagreeing
in this with the moor-hen, to whom it is so closely
allied, whilst agreeing with the dabchick, as well as

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i6o BIRD WATCHING

the great crested grebe and other birds — the cor-
morant itself— with whom it has no close affinities.
But this cannot be said without considerable quali-
fication, for, though the description I have given is
from the life and seen over and over again, yet at
other times the dive down of this bird is so totally
different that no one who had seen only the one
could think it capable of the other. In the winter,
coots swim about in flocks, and then one may see
first one little spray of water thrown up as a bird
disappears, and then another. That is all ; there is
the spray and there is no bird, whereas just before
there was one. Indeed, I think it is a quicker dive
than any that I have seen a sea-bird make, only
equalled, perhaps (or even, perhaps, not quite
equalled), by that of a really alarmed dabchick.
As for the process of it, it is undiscoverable, the eye
catches only the spray- jet, which is pretty and always
just the same. But there is no disorder, no higgledy-
piggledyness. It is something which you can't see,
but which you feel is the act of a master. Here
again, then, the coot in diving is quite the moor-hen's
superior. The dive of the latter bird is, as we have
said, archaic. It is unpolished, and greatly wants
form and style. Now, the coot is fin-footed — that is
to say, the skin of the toes is extended so as to
form on the interspace of each joint a thin lobe-
shaped membrane In this formation, which like-
wise distinguishes the grebes, we may, perhaps, see
the gradual steps by which the feet of some more
purely aquatic birds have become webbed. As the
lobes became larger they would have met and over-
lapped, and from this to an actual fusion does not

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RAVENS, CURLEWS, AND EIDER-DUCKS 161

seem an impassable gulf. This, however, is only a
supposition. It seems more likely that the web has
been, in most cases, gained by the extension of the
slight membrane between the toes, at their junction
with one another. Possibly the lobes on the toes of
the coot were gained before he became a swimmer,
and served the purpose of supporting him on mud or
floating vegetation, or, as perhaps is more probable,
they may have been developed in accordance with
the double requirement At any rate, if we suppose
this structural modification to have been effected after
the bird became in some degree truly acquatic, then,
though this does not prove that the period at which
it became so was longer ago than in the case of the
moor-hen, which has remained structurally unaffected,
yet it, perhaps, renders it likely, and we can, by sup-
posing so, understand why the one bird should dive
habitually and the other only occasionally.

The great crested grebe exhibits the same feature
of variety in his manner of diving as does his sprightly
little relative the dabchick. Sometimes it is quite
informal — he just spears the water before disappear-
ing, sinking in it a little before he spears — but at
others there is the cormorant leap upwards as well
as forwards, before going down. Of course, no more
than with the dabchick is there the same tremendous
vigour, the wonderful supple virility which lives in
the leap of this strong-souled sea robber. I say
" of course," for anyone who has watched these birds
— the most ornamental, perhaps, of any except swans
that swim the water — must have remarked a quiet,
easy, one may almost say languid, grace — something
suggestive of high birth, of "Lady Clara Vere dc

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1 62

BIRD WATCHING

Vere"-ness — in their every, or almost every, action.
Masters of grace indeed they are, and consummate
masters of diving. I do them wrong descanting
upon them here so scantily, but space, my constant
and persistent enemy, will have it so. I have not
even sufficient to make them any further apology.

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CHAPTER VII
Watching Shags and Guillemots

I HAVE referred once or twice before to the cor-
morant (including under this title the shag), and once
to the guillemot In this chapter I shall treat of
both these birds a little more at large, for in the
first place they are salient amongst sea fowl, giving
a distinctive character to the wild places that they
haunt, and secondly, I have watched them closely and
patiently. Both are interesting, and the cormorant
especially has a winning and amiable character, which
I shall the more enjoy bringing before the public
because I think that up to the present scant justice
has been done to it Something, perhaps, of the wild
and fierce attaches to the popular idea of this bird,
due, no doubt, both to its appearance, which has in
it something dark and evil-looking, and to the stern,
wild scenery of rock and sea with which this is in
consonance, and by which it is emphasised. Perhaps
the mere name even, which has by no means a harm-
less sound, has something to do with it
163

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164 BIRD WATCHING

" As with its wings aslant
Sails the fierce cormorant
Seeking some rocky haunt,"

says Longfellow — lines which, to me at least, call
up a graphic picture of the bird, though I do not
know that the first contains anything which is
specially characteristic of it; and Milton has re-
corded — as we may, perhaps, assume — the way in
which its uncouth shape appealed to him by making
it that which his grand angel-devil chooses, on one
occasion, to assume. On another one, it may be
remembered, Satan takes for his purposes the form
of a toad, and on each, no doubt, the poet, who never
appears to yield to the strong temptation (as one
would imagine) of loving his great creation, has
intended to conyey a general idea of fitness and
symbolical similarity as between the disguised being
and the disguise taken.

It has been conjectured that the habit which the
cormorant has of standing for a length of time with
its wings spread out and loosely drooping, suggested
to Milton its appropriateness, and certainly there is
an o'er-brooding, possession-taking appearance in this
attitude of the bird, in keeping with the ideas which
may be supposed to reign in Satan's breast as he
looks down from the high tree of life upon the garden
of Eden and its two newly created inhabitants. In-
dependently of this, however, the bird, as it stands
in its ordinary posture, firmly poised, the body not
quite upright but inclined somewhat forward, with
the curved neck and strong hooked beak thrown
into bold relief— the dark webbed feet grasping firmly
on the rock — has in it something suggestive both of

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 165

power and evil, which may well have struck Milton,
as it must, I think, anyone who is appreciative and
either not an ornithologist or who, if he is one, will
suppress for the time being his special scientific
knowledge and se laisser prendre aux cAoses, as
did the less (falsely) critical portion of Moliere's
audiences.

For, whatever the cormorant may look, he is in
reality — except from the fish's point of view, which
is, no doubt, a strong one — both a very innocent
and, as I have said, a very amiable bird. He shines
particularly in scenes of quiet domestic happiness —
in the home circle both giving and receiving affection
— and it is in this light that the following pictures
will for the most part reveal him. I must premise
that they all refer to that smaller and handsomer
species of our two cormorants adorned with a crest,
and whose plumage is all of a deep glossy, glancing
green, called the shag. If I speak of him sometimes
by his family name, it is because he has a clear right
to it, and also because it has a more pleasing sound
than the one which distinguishes him specifically. The
habits of the two birds are almost the same, if not
quite identical. They fish together in the sea, stand
together on the rocks, and in the earlier stages of
its plumage the more ornate one closely resembles
the other in its permanent dress. One might think
that they were not merely the co-descendants of a
common and now extinct ancestor, but the modified
form and its actual living progenitor. But I am
aware of the arguments which could be used against
such a conclusion.

I will now give my observations as taken down

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166 BIRD WATCHING

at the time, and should they be thought minute to
the point of tediousness, I can only in extenuation
plead the title of this book, whilst assuring the reader,
that however it may lie between us two, the bird,
at any rate, is in no way to blame.

Courtship, love-making. — "The way in which the
male cormorant makes love to the female is as
follows: — Either at once from where he stands, or
after first waddling a step or two, he makes an im-
pressive jump or hop towards her, and stretching his
long neck straight up, or even a little backwards, he
at the same time throws back his head so that it is
in one line with it, and opens his beak rather widely.
In a second or so he closes it, and then he opens
and shuts it again several times in succession, rather
more quickly. Then he sinks forward with his breast
on the rock, so that he lies all along it, and fanning
out his small, stiff tail, bends it over his back whilst
at the same time stretching his head and neck back-
wards towards it, till with his beak he sometimes
seizes and, apparently, plays with the feathers. In
this attitude he may remain for some seconds more
or less, having all the while a languishing or ecstatic
expression, after which he brings his head forward
again, and then repeats the performance some three
or four or, perhaps, half-a-dozen times. This would
seem to be the full courting display, the complete
figure so to speak, but it is not always fully gone
through. It may be acted part at a time. The
first part, commencing with the hop — the simple aveu
as it may be called — is not always followed by the
ecstasy in the recumbent posture, and the last is
still more often indulged in without this preliminary,

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 167

whilst the bird is sitting thus upon the rock. Again,
a bird whilst standing, but not quite erect, will dart
his head forward and upward, and make with his
bill as though snapping at insects in the air. Then,
after a second or two, he will throw his head back
till it touches or almost touches the centre of his
back, and whilst at the same time opening and
shutting the beak, communicate a quick vibratory
motion to the throat It looks as though he were
executing a trill or doing the tremulo so loved of
Italian singers, of which, however, there is no vocal
evidence.

" When the male bird makes the great pompous hop
up to the female, and then, after the preliminaries
that I have described, falls prone in front of her, he is,
so to speak, at her feet; but by throwing his head
backwards he gets practically farther off, nor can he
well see her whilst staring up into the sky behind
him, which is what he appears to be doing. Thus
the first warmth of the situation is a little chilled,
and on the stage we should call it an uncomfortable
distance. The female shag seems to think so too,
for all that she does — that is to say, all that I have
then seen her do — is to stand and look about, conduct
which, as it is uninteresting, we may perhaps assume
to be correct But when the antics begin, as one
may say, from the second figure, the male not rising
from his recumbent position (a quite usual one) on
the rock to make the first display, the bird towards
whom his attentions are directed will often be stand-
ing behind him, and it then appears. as if he had
brought back his head in order to gaze up at her
con expressions. In this case she, on her part, will

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168 BIRD WATCHING

sometimes cosset the feathers of his throat or neck
with the tip of her hooked bill, a courtesy which you
see him acknowledge by sundry little pleased movings
of his head to one side and to another. It must,
however, be understood that when I say it is the
male bird who thus pays his court to the female, I
am only inferring that this is the case. There was
nothing beyond likelihood and analogy to guide me
in what I saw, and from some subsequent observa-
tions I have reason to think that these antics are
common to both sexes. As a rule, however, one
may safely assume that the bird which in such
matters both takes the initiative and does so in a
very decided manner, is the male."

I will add that the waddling step with which the
male bird (as I believe) approaches the female may
become quickened and exaggerated into a sort of
shuffling dance. But I only use the word "dance,"
because I can think of no slighter, yet sufficient, one.
It is not, I should imagine, intentional, but only the
result of nervous excitement

These seem to be odd antics, but it is in the
nature of antics to be odd, and when such a bird
as a cormorant indulges in them one may expect
something more than ordinarily peculiar. The hop,
however, which is very pronounced, is not confined
to such occasions, but is made to alternate with the
customary waddle when the bird is moving about on
the rocks, and especially when getting up on to any
low ledge or projection. I do not know of any other
British bird which adopts this recumbent position in
courtship, but this is just what the male ostrich does,
&§ I have Qv?r ^nd over again seen. He first pursues

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 169

the hen, who flies before him, and then, having
followed her for a short distance, flings himself down,
throws back his head upon his back and rolls from
side to side, each time slowly passing the splendid white
feathers of first one and then another wing over the
velvet black plumage of his body, by which, of course,
they are shown to the very best advantage. The hen
commonly stops whilst he is doing this, and may
be supposed to pay some attention, but as to the
amount, as I write from memory after many years,
I will not here express an opinion. After a while the
male bird rises, again pursues the hen, again flings
himself down, and this is continued for a greater or
lesser number of times, till either he gives up the
chase, or the two have come to a thorough under-
standing. When thus rolling with wings spread out
and head thrown back upon himself the bird is in a
kind of ecstasy, and it is easy to go right up to him —
as I have myself done — and seize him by the neck
before he becomes aware of one's presence.

These antics therefore — though in a bird so different
as the ostrich* — bear a considerable resemblance to
those of the shag, though the latter does not at any
time make use of his wings. This, again, is in-
teresting, for there is nothing specially handsome in
the wings of a cormorant. The crest, however, is
conspicuous as the head is flung up, and by the
opening of the bill, which is a very marked feature,

* Having been led to speak of the ostrich, I will take this opportunity
of challenging the statement to be met with in several works of standing,
that the male bird alone performs the duties of incubation. I have
lived on an ostrich-farm and (unless I am dreaming) ridden round it
every afternoon in order to feed the hens, who had till then been sitting
on the eggs, and were often still to be seen so doing.

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170 BIRD WATCHING

the brilliant yellow gule which matches in colour the
naked outer skin at the base of the mandibles becomes
plainly visible. This habit of opening the bill as it
were at each other I have remarked in several sea-
birds, and also that in all or most of these cases the
interior part thus disclosed is brightly or, at least,
pleasingly coloured.

Bathing. — But whether the following be bathing
or a kind of aquatic exercise either of or not of the
nature of sexual display, I will leave to the reader
to decide. Birds which live habitually in the water
do yet bathe, I believe, in the proper sense of the
word.

" The cormorant, when bathing, raises himself a little
out of the water whilst still maintaining a horizontal
position, and in this attitude, supported as it would
seem on the feet, he commences violently to beat the
sea with his wings, moving also the tail and, I think,
treading down with the feet upon the water. The
sea is soon beaten all into foam, and when he has
accomplished this, desisting, he begins to sport about
in the whiteness of it in an odd excited manner,
making little turns and darts and often being just
submerged, but no more. He does this for a few
minutes, stops, and commences again after a short
interval, and thus continues alternately sporting and
resting for a quarter of an hour or, perhaps, even as
long as half-an-hour. I think this must be bathing
or washing, for other birds act in the same way,
though less markedly, so that it does not occur to
one to wonder what they are about The little black
guillemot, for instance, beats the water briskly and
rapidly with his wings, but whereas the cormorant

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 171

beats it into foam so that it looks like the wake of
a steamer, he raises only a little silvery sprinkling of
spray, for he but just flips the surface of it with the
tips of his quill feathers. All the while his little,
upturned, fanned tail keeps waggle - waggling, but
this, too, acts more like a light shuttlecock than a
powerful screw. Nor does he dip so much or make
such violent motions as of a mad water-dance. The
cormorant's performance is strong — an epic. His
is lyrical rather. No lofty genius but a pretty little
minor poet is the black guillemot, and after each
little water-verselet he rises pleasedly and gives his
wings an applausive little shake. You might think
he was clapping them — and himself."

Gargoyle idylls, — "Now I have found a nest with
the bird on it, to see and watch. It was on a ledge,
and just within the mouth of one of those long,
narrowing, throat-like caverns into and out of which
the sea with all sorts of strange, sullen noises licks
like a tongue. The bird, who had seen me, con-
tinued for a long time afterwards to crane about
its long neck from side to side or up and down
over the nest, in doing which it had a very demoniac
appearance, suggesting some evil being in its dark
abode, or even the principle of evil itself. As it was
impossible for me to watch it without my head being
visible over the edge of the rock I was on, I collected
a number of loose flat stones that lay on the turf
above, and, at the cost of a good* deal of time and
labour, made a kind of wall or sconce with loopholes
in it, through which I could look, yet be invisible.
Presently the bird's mate came flying into the cavern,
and wheeling up as it entered, alighted on a sloping

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172 BIRD WATCHING

slab of the rock just opposite to the nest For a
little both birds uttered low, deep, croaking notes
in weird unison with the surroundings and the sad
sea-dirges, after which they were silent for a con-
siderable time, the one standing and the other sitting
on the nest vis-a-vis to each other. At length the
former, which I have no doubt was the male, hopped
across the slight space dividing them on to the nest,
which was a huge mass of seaweed. There were
now some more deep sounds and then, bending over
the female bird, the male caressed her by passing the
hooked tip of his bill through the feathers of her head
and neck, which she held low down the better to
permit of this. Afterwards the two sat side by side
together on the nest

" The whole scene was a striking picture of affection
between these dark, wild birds in their lonely, wave-
made home.

11 Here was love unmistakable, between so strange a
pair and in so wild a spot But to them it was the
sweetest of bowers. How snug, how cosy they were
on that great wet heap of ' the brown seaweed,' just
in the dark jaws of that gloom -filled cavern, with
the frowning precipice above and the sullen-heaving
sea beneath. Here in this gloom, this wildness, this
stupendousness of sea and shore, beneath grey skies
and in chilling air, here was peace, here was comfort,
conjugal love, domestic bliss, the same flame burning
in such strange gargoyle-shaped forms amidst all the
shagginess of nature. The scene was full of charm,
full of poetry, more so, as it struck me, than most
love-scenes in most plays and novels — having regard,
of course, to the prodigious majority of the bad ones.

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 173

" The male bird now flies out to sea again, and after
a time returns carrying a long piece of brown seaweed
in fiis bill. This he delivers to the female, who takes
it from him and deposits it on the heap, as she sits.
Meanwhile, the male flies off again, and again returns
with more seaweed, which he delivers as before, and
this he does eight times in the space of one hour
and forty minutes, diving each time for the seaweed
with the true cormorant leap. Sometimes the sitting
bird, when she takes the seaweed from her mate,
merely lets it drop on the heap, but at others she
places and manipulates it with some care. All takes
place in silence for the most part, but on some of
the visits the heads are thrown up and there are
sounds — hoarse and deeply guttural — as of gratulation
between the two.

" Once the male bird, standing on the rock, pulls at
some green seaweed growing there, and after a time
gets it off.

('It was rather tough work to pull out the cork,
But he drew it at last with his teeth.')

" The female is much interested, stretches forward
with her neck over the nest and takes the seaweed
as soon as it is loose, before the other can pass it to
her. Then she arranges it on the nest, the male
looking on the while as though she were the bride
cutting the cake. Now he hops on to the nest again,
and both together (for I think the male joins) arrange
or pull the seaweed about with their beaks. One
would think that the nest was still a-building and
that the eggs were not yet laid. This last, however,
is not the case. Several times, whilst waiting alone,

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174 BIRD WATCHING

the female bird rises a little on the nest, and each
time there is a gleam like snow and the gloom seems
deeper against the cut outline of a pure white egg.
How full of poetry and interest it is lying there ; how
unmeaning and, one may almost say, absurd in a
cabinet ! "

The nest of the shag is continually added to by the
male, not only whilst the eggs are in process of incuba-
tion, but after they are hatched, and when the young
are being brought up. In a sense, therefore, it may
be said to be never finished, though to all practical
purposes it is, before the female bird begins to sit
That up to this period the female as well as the male
bird takes part in the building of the nest I cannot but
think, but from the time of my arrival on the island I
never saw the two either diving for or carrying seaweed
together. Of course, if all the hen birds were sitting
this is accounted for, but from the courting antics which
I witnessed, and for some other reasons, I judged that
this was not the case. Once I saw a pair of birds
together high up on the cliffs, where some tufts of grass
grew in the niches. One of these birds, only, pulled
out some of the grass, and flew away with it accom-
panied by the other one. It is not only seaweed that
is used by these birds in the construction of the nest
In many that I saw, grass alone was visible (though I
have no doubt seaweed was underneath it) ; and one,
in particular, had quite an ornamental appearance,
from being covered all over with some land-plant
having a number of small blue flowers ; and this I
have observed in other nests, though not to the same
extent A fact like this is interesting when we re-
member the bower-birds, and the way in which they

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 175

ornament their runs. I think it was on this same nest
that I noticed the picked and partially bleached
skeleton — with the head and wings still feathered —
of a puffin. It had, to be sure, a sorry appearance to
the human — at least to the civilised human — eye, but
if it had not been brought there for the sake of orna-
ment I can think of no other reason, and brought
there or, at least, placed upon the nest by the bird, it
must almost certainly have been. The brilliant beak
and saliently marked head of the puffin must be here
remembered. Again, fair-sized pieces of wood or spar,
cast up by the sea and whitened by it, are often to be
seen stuck amongst the seaweed, and on one occasion
I saw a bird fly with one of these to its nest and place
it upon it In all this, as it seems to me, the beginnings
of a tendency to ornament the nest are clearly exhibited.
It would be interesting to observe if the common
cormorant exhibits the same tendency, or to the same
degree. The shag being a handsome and adorned
bird, we might, on Darwinian principles, expect to find
the aesthetic sense more developed in it than in its
plainer and unadorned relative.

Both the sexes share in the duty and pleasure of
incubation, and (as in some other species) to see them
relieve each other on the nest is to see one of the
prettiest things in bird life. The bird that you have
been watching has sat patiently the whole morning,
and once or twice as it rose in the nest and shifted
itself round into another position on the eggs, you
have seen the gleam of them as they lay there

"As white

as ocean foam in the moon."

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176 BIRD WATCHING

At last when it is well on in the afternoon, the
partner bird flies up and stands for some minutes
preening itself, whilst the one on the nest, who is
turned away, throws back the head towards it and
opens and shuts the bill somewhat widely, as in greet-
ing, several times. The newcomer then jumps and
waddles to the further side of the nest, so as to front
the sitting bird, and sinking down against it with a
manner and action full both of affection and a sense of
duty, this one is half pushed, half persuaded to leave,
finally doing so with the accustomed grotesque hop.
As it comes down on the rock it turns towards the
other who is now settling on to the eggs, and, throwing
up its head into the air, opens the bill so as to show
(or at any rate showing) the brightly coloured space
within.

All this it does with the greatest — what shall we
say? Not exactly empressetnent % but character — it is
a character part There is an indescribable expres-
sion in the bird — all over it — as of something vastly
important having been accomplished, of relief, of
satisfaction, of suntmum bonum, and, also, of a certain
grotesque and gargoil-like archness — but as though all
these were only half-consciously felt She then (for I
think it is the female), before flying away, picks up a
white feather from the ledge and passes it to the male,
now established on the nest, who receives and places
it It has all been nearly in silence, only a few low,
guttural notes having passed between the birds, whilst
they were close together.

Just in the same way the birds relieve each other
after the eggs have been hatched and when the young
are being fed and attended to.

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 177

" A shag (I think the female bird) is sitting on her
nest with the young ones, whilst the male stands on a
higher ledge of the rock a yard or so away. He now
jumps down and stands for a moment with head some-
what erected and beak slightly open. Then he makes
the great pompous hop which I have described before,
coming down right in front of the female, who raises
her head towards him and opens and closes the man-
dibles several times in the approved manner. The two
birds then nibble, as it were, the feathers of each other's
necks with the ends of their bills, and the male takes
up a little of the grass of the nest, seeming to toy with
it He then very softly and persuadingly pushes him-
self against the sitting bird, seeming to say, ' It's my
turn now,' and thus gets her to rise, when both stand
together on the nest, over the young ones. The male
then again takes up a little of the grass of the nest,
which he passes towards the female, who also takes it,
and they toy with it a little together before allowing it
to drop. The insinuating process now continues, the
male in the softest and gentlest manner pushing the
female away and then sinking down into her place,
where he now sits, whilst she stands beside him on the
ledge. As soon as the relieving bird has settled itself
amidst the young, and whilst the other one is still there
— not yet having flown off to sea — it begins to feed
them. Their heads — very small, and with beaks not
seeming to be much longer in proportion to their size
than those of young ducks — are seen moving feebly
about, pointing upwards, but with very little precision.
Very gently, and seeming to seize the right opportunity,
the parent bird takes first one head and then another
in the basal part, or gape, of his mandibles, turning his
M

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178 BIRD WATCHING

own head on one side in order to do so, so that the rest
of the long bill projects sideways beyond the chick's
head without touching it In this connection, and
whilst the chick's head is quite visible, little, if any
more than the beak being within the gape of the parent
bird, the latter bends the head down and makes that
particular action as of straining so as to bring some-
thing up, which one is familiar with in pigeons. This
process is gone through several times before the bird
standing on the ledge flies away, to return again in a
quarter of an hour with a piece of seaweed, which is
laid on the nest 11 Here again, as throughout, the
sexes of the birds can only be inferred or merely
guessed at Both share in incubation, both feed the
young, both (I think) bring seaweed to the nest, and
both are exactly alike.

As the chicks become older they thrust the head and
bill farther and farther down the throat of the parent
bird, and at last to an astonishing extent Always,
however, it appeared to me that the parent bird brought
up the food into the chick's bills in some state of
preparation, and was not a mere passive bag from
which the latter pulled out fish in a whole state.
There were several nests all in unobstructed view,
and so excellent were my glasses that, practically,
I saw the whole process as though it had been
taking place on a table in front of me. The chicks,
on withdrawing their heads from the parental throat,
would often slightly open and close the mandibles
as though still tasting something, in a manner which
one may describe as smacking the bill ; but on no
occasion did I observe anything projecting from the
bill when this was withdrawn, as one would expect

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 179

sometimes to be the case if unmodified fish were
pulled up, but not if these were in a soft, porridgey
condition. Always, too, the actions of the parent
bird suggested that particular process which is known
as regurgitation, and which may be observed with
pigeons, and also — as I have seen and recorded —
with the nightjar.

Cormorants, as they sit on the nest, have a curious
habit of twitching or quivering the muscles of the
throat, so that the feathers dance about in a very
noticeable manner, especially if that rare phenomenon,
a glint of sunshine, should happen to fall upon them.
Whilst doing so they usually sit quite still, some-
times with the bill closed, but more frequently, per-
haps, with the mandibles separated by a finger's
breadth or so. I have watched this curious kind of
St Vitus's dance going on for a quarter of an hour
or more, and it seems as though it might continue
indefinitely for any length of time. All at once it
will cease for a while, and then as suddenly break
out again. It is not only the old birds that twitch
the throat in this manner. The chicks do so too in
just as marked a degree, and on account of the skin
of their necks being naked it is, perhaps, more notice-
able in their case than with the parent birds. I have
observed exactly the same thing, though it was not
quite so conspicuous, in the nightjar, so that I cannot
help asking myself the question whether it stands in
any kind of connection with the habit of bringing
up food for the young from the crop or stomach —
the regurgitatory process. I will not be sure, but I
think that the same curious tremulo of the throatal
feathers may be observed in pigeons as they sit on the

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i8o BIRD WATCHING

nest It is that portion of the throat which lies just
below the bird's gape (I am here speaking of the
shag), including both the feathered and the naked skin
between the cleft of the lower mandible, and extend-
ing to the sides of the neck, which is principally
twitched or quivered.

The above, perhaps, is a trivial observation, but no
one can watch these birds very closely without being
struck by the habit

Young shags are, at fifst, naked and black — also
blind, as I was able to detect through the glasses.
Afterwards the body becomes covered with a dusky
grey down, and then every day they struggle more and
more into the likeness of their parents. They soon
begin to imitate the grown-up postures, and it is a
pretty thing to see mother and young one sitting
together with both their heads held stately upright,
or the little woolly chick standing up in the nest and
hanging out its thin little featherless wings, just as
mother is doing, or just as it has seen her do. At
other times they lie sprawling together either flat
or on their sides. They are good-tempered and
playful, seize playfully hold of each other's bills,
and will often bite and play with the feathers of
their parent's tail. In fact, they are a good deal
like puppies, and the heart goes out both to
them and to their loving, careful, assiduous mother
and father. As pretty domestic scenes are enacted
daily and hourly on this stern old rock, within the
very heave and dash of the waves, as ever in
Arcadia, or in any neat little elegant bower where
the goddess of such things presides — or does not
The sullen sea itself might smile to watch its

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 181

pretty children thus at play, and to me it seemed
that it did.

Guarding the nest and affairs of honour. — When
both birds are at home, the one that stands on the
rock, by or near the nest, is ready to guard it from
all intrusion. Should another bird fly on to the
rock and alight, in his opinion, too near it, he imme-
diately advances towards him, shaking his wings,
and uttering a low, grunting note which is full of
intention. Finding itself' in a false position, the
intruding bird flies off; but it sometimes happens
that when two nests are not far apart, the sentinels
belonging to each are in too close a proximity, and
begin to cast jealous glances upon one another. In
such a case, neither bird can retreat without some
loss of dignity, and, as a result, there is a fight I
have witnessed a drama of this nature. As in the
case of the herring-gulls, the two locked their beaks
together, and the one which seemed to be the stronger
endeavoured with all his might to pull the other
towards him, which the weaker bird, on his part,
resisted as desperately, using his wings both as
opposing props, and also to push back with. This
lasted for some while, but the pulling bird was unable
to drag the other up the steeply -sloping rock, and
finally lost his hold. Instead of trying to regain it,
he turned and shuffled excitedly to the nest, and
when he reached it the bird sitting there stretched
out her neck towards him, and opened and shut her
beak several times in quick succession. It was as if
he had said to her, " I hope you observed my prowess.
Was it well done ? " and she had replied, " I should
think I did observe it It was indeed well done." On

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182 BIRD WATCHING

the worsted bird's ascending the rock to get to his
nest, the victorious one ran, or rather waddled, at him,
putting him to a short flight up to it But, though
defeated, this bird was cordially received by his own
partner, who threw up her head and opened her bill
at him in the same way, as though sympathising,
and saying, " Don't mind him ; he 's rude." In such
affairs, either bird is safe as soon as he gets within
close distance of his own nest, for it would be against
all precedent, and something monstrous, that he
should be followed beyond a certain charmed line
drawn around it *

Nothing is more interesting than to look down
from the summit of some precipice on to a ledge at
no great distance below, which is quite crowded with
guillemots. Roughly speaking, the birds form two
long rows, but these rows are very irregular in depth
and formation, and swell here and there into little
knots and clusters, besides often merging into or
becoming mixed with each other, so that the idea of
symmetry conveyed is of a very modified kind, and
may be sometimes broken down altogether. In the
first row, a certain number of the birds sit close
against and directly fronting the wall of the preci-
pice, into the angle of which with the ledge they
often squeeze themselves. Several will be closely
pressed together so that the head of one is often
resting against the neck or shoulder of another, which
other will also be making a pillow of a third, and so
on. Others stand here and there behind the seated
ones, each being, as a rule, close to his or her partner.
There is another irregular row about the centre of the
ledge, and equally here it is to be remarked that the

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 183

sitting birds have their beaks pointed towards the
cliff, whilst the standing ones are turned indifferently.
There are generally several birds on the edge of
the parapet, and at intervals one will come pressing
to it through the crowd in order to fly down to
the sea, whilst from time to time, also, others, fly
up and alight upon it, often with sand-eels in
their beaks. On a ledge of, perhaps, some dozen
or so paces in length, there may be from sixty to
eighty guillemots, and as often as they are counted
the number will be found to be approximately
the same.

Most of the sitting birds are either incubating or.
have young ones under them, which, as long as they
are little, they seem to treat very much as though
they were eggs. Others, however, when they stand
up are seen to have nothing underneath them, for as
with other sea-birds, so far as I have been able to
observe, there seems to be a great disparity in the
time at which different individuals begin to lay. In
the case of the puffin, for instance, some birds may be
seen collecting grass and taking it to their burrows,
whilst others are bringing in a regular supply of fish
to their young. Much affection is shown between the
paired birds. One that is sitting either on her egg
or young one — for no difference in the attitude can be
discovered — will often be very much cosseted by the
partner who stands close behind or beside her. With
the tip of his long, pointed beak he, as it were, nibbles
the feathers (or perhaps, rather, scratches and tickles
the skin between them) of her head, neck, and throat,
whilst she, with her eyes half closed, and an expression
as of submitting to an enjoyment — a " Well, I suppose

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184 BIRD WATCHING

I must" look — bends her head backwards, or screws
it round sideways towards him, occasionally nibbling
with her bill, also, amidst the feathers of his throat, or
the thick white plumage of his breast Presently,
she stands up, revealing the small, hairy-looking
chick, whose head has from time to time been visible,
just peeping out from under its mother's wing. Upon
this the other bird bends its head down and cossets in the
same way — but very gently, and with the extreme tip
of the bill — the little tender young one. The mother
does so too, and then both birds, standing together
side by side over the chick, pay it divided attentions,
seeming as though they could not make enough either
of their child or each other. It is a pretty picture,
and here is another one. " A bird — we will think her
the female, as she performs the most mother-like part
— has just flown in with a fish — a sand-eel — in her bill.
She makes her way with it to the partner, who rises
and shifts the chick that he has been brooding over
from himself to her. This is done quite invisibly, as
far as the chick is concerned, but you can see that it
is being done.

" The bird with the fish, to whom the chick has been
shifted, now takes it in hand. Stooping forward her
body, and drooping down her wings, so as to make
a kind of little tent or awning of them, she sinks her
bill with the fish in it towards the rock, then raises it
again, and does this several times before either letting
the fish drop or placing it in the chick's bill — for
which it is I cannot quite see. It is only now that
the chick becomes visible, its back turned to the bird
standing over it, and its bill and throat moving as
though swallowing something down. Then the bird

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 185

that has fed it shifts it again to the other, who receives
it with equal care, and bending down over it, appears
— for it is now again invisible — to help or assist it in
some way. It would be no wonder if the chick had
wanted assistance, for the fish was a very big one for
so small a thing, and it would seem as if he swallowed
it bodily. After this the chick is again treated as
an egg by the bird that has before had charge of him
— that is to say, he is sat upon, apparently, just as
though he were to be incubated — or suppressed, like
the guinea-pigs in * Alice in Wonderland.'"

On account of the closeness with which the chick
is guarded by the parent birds, and the way in which
they both stand over it, it is difficult to make out
exactly how it is fed; but I think the fish is either
dropped at once on the rock or dangled a little, for it
to seize hold of. It is in the bringing up and looking
after of the chick that one begins to see the meaning
of the sitting guillemots being always turned towards
the cliff, for from the moment that the egg is hatched,
one or other of the parent birds interposes between
the chick and the edge of the parapet Of course I
cannot say that the rule is universal, but I never saw
a guillemot incubating with its face turned towards
the sea, nor did I ever see a chick on the seaward side
of the parent bird who was with it It seems probable
that the relative positions of the sitting bird and the
egg would be continued from use after the latter had
become the young one ; and if we suppose that in a
certain number of cases where these positions were
reversed the chick perished from running suddenly
out from under the parent and falling over the edge
of the rock, we can understand natural selection

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186 BIRD WATCHING

having gradually eliminated the source of this danger.
But natural selection may have acted in another
direction, which would have been still more conducive
to the safety of the chick. I observed that the latter
— even when, as I judged by its tininess, it had only
been quite recently hatched — was as alert and as well
able to move about as a young chicken or partridge ;
but whilst possessing all the power, it appeared to
have little will to do so. Its lethargy — as shown by
the way in which, even when a good deal older, it
would sit for hours without moving from under the
mother — struck me as excessive ; and it would
certainly seem that on a bare narrow ledge, to fall
from which would be certain death, chicks of a
lethargic disposition would have an advantage over
others who were fonder of running about If we
suppose that a certain number of chicks perished
even amongst those whose parents always stood
between them and the sheer edge, we can understand
both the one and the other step towards security
having been brought about, either successively or
side by side with each other.

From the foregoing it would appear that the young
guillemot is fed with fish which are brought straight
from the sea in the parent's bill, and not — as in the
case of the gulls — disgorged for them after having
been first swallowed. It is, however, a curious fact
that the fish when thus brought in is, sometimes at
any rate, headless. The reason of this I do not know,
but with the aid of the glasses I have made quite
certain of it, and each time it appeared as though the
head had been cleanly cut off. Moreover, on alight-
ing on the ledge the bird always has the fish (a

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 187

sand-eel, whenever I saw it) held lengthways in the
beak, with the tail drooping out to one side of it,
and the head part more or less within the throat — a
position which seems to suggest that it may have been
swallowed or partially swallowed — whereas puffins
and razorbills carry the fish they catch crosswise,
with head and tail depending on either side.

I have also once or twice thought that I saw a
bird which just before had had no fish in its bill, all
at once carrying one. But I may well have been
mistaken ; and it does not seem at all likely that the
birds should usually carry their fish, and thus, as will
appear shortly, subject themselves to persecution, if
they could disgorge it without inconvenience. With
regard to the occasional absence of the head, perhaps
this is sometimes cut off in catching the fish, or before
it is swallowed, which may also have been the case
with the herrings brought by the great skuas to their
young. However, I can but give the facts, as far as I
was able to observe them.

Married birds sometimes behave in a pretty manner
with the fish that they bring to each other, and if
coquetry be not the right word to apply to it, I know
of none better. The following is my note made at
the time: —

" A bird flies in with a fine sand-eel in his bill, and
having run the gauntlet of the whole ledge with it,
at last succeeds in bringing it to his partner. For a
long time now, these two coquet together with the
fish. The one that has brought it keeps biting and
nibbling at it, moving his head about with it from side
to side, bringing it down upon the ledge between his
feet, then raising it again, seeming to rejoice in the

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188 BIRD WATCHING

having it The other one seems all the while to admire
it too, and often makes as though to take it from him
— prettily and softly — but he refuses it to her, some-
thing as a dog prettily refuses to give up a stick to
his master. At last, however, he lets her take it —
which, it is apparent, he has meant to do all the time
— and when she has it she behaves in much the same
manner with it, whilst he would seem to beg it back of
her, and thus they go on together for such a time that
at last I weary of watching them. There is a wonderful
making much of the fish between the two birds, yet it
is not eaten by either of them, and there is no chick,
here, in the case. It is quite apparent that the fish
is only something for coquetry and affection to gather
about — it is a focus, a point cTappui y a peg to hang love
upon. Yet the birds — and this is what I constantly
notice — seem only to have a kind of half consciousness
of what they mean." This particular fish, I may say,
was minus the head, which had the appearance of
having been neatly and cleanly cut off.

Yet there are harsher notes amidst all this tender-
ness, and the state of a bird's appetite will sometimes
make a vast difference in its conduct under the same
or similar circumstances. " A bird," for instance, " that
has just come with a fish in its bill for the young one,
is violently attacked — and this several times in succes-
sion — by the other parent, who is in actual charge of
the chick. This one — we will suppose it to be the
father, though, I half think, unjustly — makes the
greediest dart at the fish, trying to seize it out of his
wife's bill, and also pecks her very violently. Once
he seizes her by the neck and holds her thus for some
seconds, yet all the while in the couched attitude and

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 189

with the chick underneath him. The poor mother
yields each time to the storm, scuttles out of the way,
seems perplexed and startled, but keeps firm hold of
the fish. Driven away over and over again, she always
comes back, and at length, by dint of perseverance and
right feeling, weathers the storm, insinuates herself into
the place of the greedy bird and begins to feed the
chick. A new chord of feeling is now struck, and the
bird that has been so greedy and ill-tempered co-
operates in the most tender and interested manner
with the wife whom he has outraged. The 'scene' of
a moment ago is forgotten, and there is now a widely
different and more accustomed one of family concord,
tenderness, and peace."

I cannot think that such conduct as the above is
common, and even on this one occasion when I saw it,
it is possible (though it does not seem very likely) that
the ill-behaving bird did not try to get the fish for its
own sake, but only to feed the chick with. But how-
' ever this may have been, fish are the constant cause of
disturbance amongst the birds generally, and the guil-
lemot that flies in. with one has to avoid the snaps
made at it by all those near to where he alights, and
must sometimes run the gauntlet of most of the birds
on the ledge before he can get with it to his own
domicile. Sometimes he loses the fish, which is then
often lost again by the successful bird, and so passed
from one to another.

Or it may be tugged at for a long time by two birds
that have a firm hold of the head and tail part re-
spectively, and pull it backwards and forwards, not
infrequently across the neck of a third bird standing
between them. Birds incubating or brooding over

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their young ones are equally ready with those stand-
ing, to try and snatch away a fish from another, but
in the great majority of cases the bird who has flown
in with his booty and has a very firm hold of it, gets it
safely through the crowd. Such episodes as these are
rather of the nature of assault and robbery than regular
fighting, for the bird attacked, though often severely
pecked, never does anything but dodge and pull, for
he cannot well thrust back again whilst holding a fish
in his bill, and his whole endeavour is to avoid losing
this. Combats, however, are very frequent amongst
guillemots, much more so than I should have thought
the condition of living packed closely together on a
narrow ledge in the rock would have allowed, for surely
one might have expected that this necessity would
have been a power making for peace and concord.
That it has been so to some extent, I make no doubt,
and it may also have played a part in forming the
character of the fighting, which is — or, at least, it
struck me as being — somewhat peculiar. Though
often violent, it is not, as a rule, vindictive, and as
it seems to break out for no particular reason, so it
generally ceases suddenly by one of the two birds
stopping, as it were, in mid-thrust, and commencing
to preen itself, after which it may be resumed once or
twice before ceasing finally in the same way. The
other bird seems only too happy to be left in peace,
and instead of pressing the assault whilst his adversary
is thus engaged and at a momentary disadvantage,
generally stands unconcerned or begins to preen him-
self also. This sudden passing from the sublime to
the ridiculous, from war to the toilette, has a curious
and half comic effect

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 191

Such preening under such circumstances must, one
would think, spring from a powerful incentive, and
it is, I believe, chiefly when annoyed by insects that
the birds preen themselves, though whether their
efforts are actually to free themselves of these, or
only to allay the irritation by scratching, I am not
quite sure. But I noticed that a bird would often
bend down its head, and with the extreme tip of its
finely - pointed bill appear minutely to explore the
surface of its webbed feet — and further, that when
the partner of a bird doing this was beside him, it
would become most interested, and do its best to
assist him in the matter. One may suppose that
the ledge — which is, of course, coated with a layer
of guano — is covered with, these pests, and that they
often crawl over the bird's feet, and so ascend on to
the body. If the skin of the feet were sensitive, their
owner would at once know when this was the case,
and with its keen eyesight and stiletto bill might
guard itself fairly well, as long as it only stood. As,
however, all the birds constantly sit flat on the rock,
even when not incubating, the searching of the feet
can be of little or no real importance to them. It
is very interesting and has a very human appearance
(not so much in regard to the particular act as the
careful look and manner and the attitudes assumed)
to see two birds thus helping to clean each other's
feet, as I think must here be the case. When they
nibble and preen each other they may, as a rule,
I think, be rightly said to cosset and caress, the
expression and pose of the bird receiving the benefit
being often beatific, and the enjoyment being, no
doubt, of the nature of that which a parrot receives

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192 BIRD WATCHING

by having its poll scratched ; though, with regard to
this, we must not forget the look of supreme satisfac-
tion which a monkey often has whilst a friend is
doing his best to make him clean and respectable.
With the foot-cleaning there is no such attitude and
expression. The bird helped is at the same time an
active agent, and both of them are careful, earnest,
and investigatory. It struck me, however, that the
chick was cosseted in a somewhat more business-like
manner, as though, if not actually to clean it, at least
to make it spruce and tidy. It seems probable,
indeed, that the conferring a practical benefit of the
kind indicated may be one origin of the caress
throughout nature; but others may be imagined.

The usual cause of guillemots fighting would seem
to be one of them moving to a sufficient degree to
attract the attention of the one nearest to it, who
then — as though the circumstances permitted of no
other course — delivers a vigorous thrust with its long,
spear-like bill. This is the usual way of fighting,
so that a combat has something the appearance of
a fencing-match. The two birds stand upright with
their bodies turned more sideways towards each other,
than actually fronting, so that their heads, which alone
do so, are twisted a little round. They stand at such
a distance apart, that when the neck is held straight
up, with the head flying out at a right angle, the tips
of their two long lances just touch, so that the birds
form a natural archway. In this position they make
quick, repeated thrusts at each other, usually directed
at the face or neck, by a motion of which, rather than
by parrying with the beak, each endeavours to avoid
the lunge of its adversary. But besides

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 193

"Tilting,
Point to point at one another's breasts,"

they are ready to seize hold of each other should the
opportunity occur, and when the fight is fierce, and
the birds in their eagerness press in upon each other,
they then strike smartly with their wings. Some-
times, too, each tries to seize the other's beak, but
this is not usual, as I imagine it to be with herring-
gulls and cormorants. These single combats rarely
become milies^ though, if one bird is forced to retreat,
those amongst whom he pushes will be ready to peck
at him and at each other. Of course, a bird, if really
in distress, can always fly down from the ledge into
the sea, and this it is often forced to do if it has been
standing near the edge when the combat broke out
The better-placed bird seems then to recognise its
advantage, and presses boldly forward upon the other.
There is a short retreat, a recognition of the danger
and vigorous rally, another forced step backwards, an
ineffectual whirring of wings on the extreme brink,
and, turning in the moment of falling, the discom-
fited one renounces all further effort and plunges
into the abyss. And, no doubt, the little lice who
crawl about upon the ledge and see such mighty
doings, would, were they poets, write long epics telling
of the wars and falls of angels. But only combats
on the brink have such dramatic terminations, and
farther inland a fight must be of an exceptionally
violent kind to make the birds not think of preening
themselves, and thus bring it to an end.

Birds that are incubating will fight as well as the
others, and no respect seems to be paid to them on
this account Often one thus occupied may be seen
N

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194 BIRD WATCHING

thrusting up at a standing bird, who, in turn, thrusts
down at it, or two recumbent ones will spar vigorously
at each other. One wonders that under these cir-
cumstances the eggs are not sometimes broken, as may
possibly be the case; but with regard to this, I will
here quote the following note which I made on the
management of the egg during incubation : —

"It appears to me that the guillemot sits with the
egg not only between its legs, but resting on the
two webbed feet, and pressed slightly by them against
the breast At any rate, I have just distinctly seen
the bird rise up, take the egg carefully in this way
between its two feet, sliding them underneath it, and
then sink gently down upon it again. I believe that
the egg was so placed when the bird rose, and that
it rose for the purpose of improving its position. It
seems likely that if the egg rests upon the bird's feet
instead of on the bare rock, it must be less liable
to fracture, and could be pressed slightly up by the
bird amongst its feathers, so that the two opposed
pressures could be combined to advantage, or either
of them relaxed when it was to the bird's convenience.

" Have just seen another sitting bird rise, and, in
settling down again, she certainly seemed to place
her feet under the egg, assisting at the same time
to place it with the bill. When she rose the partner
bird came forward to her, and, lowering his head,
looked at the egg with the tenderest interest, then
cosseted her as she stood, and again when she had
resettled.

" Another bird has half risen, showing the egg quite
plainly. It is certainly resting on the feet"

Guillemots, as is well known, lay their single egg

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 19S

on the bare rock, but sometimes they will pick up
and play with a feather, and I have seen one carry
some fibres of grass or root, which had perhaps fallen
or been blown from a kittiwake's nest, to its partner,
and lay them down as if showing her. In such acts
we may perhaps see a lingering trace of a lost nest-
building instinct. They walk, as a rule, with the
whole shank, as well as the actual foot resting on
the surface of the rock, but sometimes they will draw
themselves up so that they stand upon the foot, or
rather the toes, alone, just in the way in which a
penguin does, and in this attitude they can both walk
and run. Anatomically speaking, the shank is, I
believe, a part of the foot, corresponding to our own
heel, and functionally it is so, too, in the guillemot,
as well as in the razorbill and puffin. It is interest-
ing, therefore, to see the occasional assumption of an
attitude which in the penguins has become habitual.
Their ordinary walking attitude is with the head held
erect, but they often sink it to or below the breast,
at the same time craning the neck right forward,
which gives them a grotesque and uncanny appear-
ance, like one of the evil creatures in Retche's outlines
of Faust Again, one of them will sometimes throw
the head and neck slightly forward, and at the same
time jerking the wings sharply behind the back, will,
after remaining with them thus " set " for a moment,
run briskly forward, giving them a vigorous shaking.
But in spite of wings and beaks, and a few other
dissimilarities, it is of men that one has to think when
watching these erect, white-waistcoated, funny little
bodies. Indeed, they are much like us, for they fight,
love, breed, eat, and stand upright, which is most of

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what we do, though we make so much more pother
about it But it has a funny effect to see it all going
on — like a "picture in little" — on a ledge of the
bare rock.

If guillemots are watched closely, one may be
noticed now and again to scrape with its beak for
some time at the ledge where it is lying, opening and
closing its mandibles upon it Every now and then —
as I make it out — it encloses a small object between
them, which must, I think, be a piece of the rock, and
with a quick jerk of the head sideways and upwards,
swallows this. This, then, is how guillemots procure
the small stones which are, no doubt, necessary to
them for digestive purposes. The great mass of the
rock forming the island is sedimentary, and in a more
or less crumbling state, much of it, indeed, quite rotten
and dangerous to trust to.

I will conclude this slight picture of life on a ledge
with a few lines from my notes, as taken during that
short period which, in summer, best answers to the
coming on of night and dawn of morning here in
England.

" 10.40 P.M. Some dozen birds out of about thirty
that I can see appear to be roosting. The kittiwakes
are more silent than in broad day, though there is
a burst of clamour now and again.

" 10.56. There is less activity now, but few birds
seem thoroughly asleep. Many stand, and some
occasionally walk about and flap their wings. One
has just flown off the ledge, but no others are doing
so, nor are any arriving upon it The general scene
is much quieter, and so with the kittiwakes. The
ledge now, at past eleven, is very quiet, though the

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WATCHING SHAGS AND GUILLEMOTS 197

majority of the birds still stand, and some preen
themselves. The glasses have become inferior to the
naked eye, though one can read anything with per-
fect ease. The birds, it is evident, judge of night
by the light. They do not make a factitious night
according to the duration of time. They sleep,
indeed, in patches, but, on the whole, would seem to
do so very little in the twenty-four hours.

"11.17. The majority of the birds are now roosting,
perhaps almost all. I can see no puffins. They must,
therefore, it seems, lie roosting too, in holes or crevices
of the rocks.

"11.30. All quiet at Shipka.

"11.35. A bird flies in duskily from the sea, and
now no fighting ensues. All is quiet at Shipka.

"11.50. All quiet at Shipka — a little more so
perhaps.

"11.55. As before.

"12 o'clock. Much as before, but two birds are,
I think, cosseting. Though one can read and write
with ease, and see all objects — even birds sitting or
flying a long way off— still it is all gloom and yellow
murkiness. Light seems gone, though there be light
It is ' darkness visible/ indeed, neither true night nor
true day, but more like night than day. The great
shapes of cliff and hill seem drawn in gloom clearly,
the sea gleams dimly and duskily, all is weird, strange,
and portentous. It is the marriage of opposite king-
doms, or rather, the monstrous child of light and
darkness.

"12.15. All roosting, I think*

"12.30. Quiet now. All quiet at Shipka.

"1243. Much as before. On the steep side of

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one of the great 'stacks' opposite, kittiwakes are
roosting in the most extraordinary numbers, and so
close together that they look not like birds, but
some outcrop on the surface of the rock. They
consist, no doubt, of the partners of all the sitting
birds on the ledges.

" 1. 5 A.M. The ledge is now stirring into life again,
and so, too, the great block of kittiwakes on the
'stack/ from which birds keep dashing out, whirling
and circling, settling again or visiting their sitting
partners on the nests, before flying back to it. But
the clamour of voices is, as yet, slight.

"Now, at 1.25, it is beginning to be greater.

" 1.50. A general preening amongst the guillemots,
though a good many still lie asleep. But soon they
wake, too, and begin, for now it is light, bright, and
morning."

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CHAPTER VIII

Watching Birds at a StrawStack

ONE of the most interesting ways of watching birds
at very close quarters is to conceal oneself in one of
the corn-stacks or wheat-ricks that in the autumn
begin to spring up like mushrooms all over the
country-side. This is a winter pastime, and the
harder the weather the greater will be the results
yielded. To have chaffinches, greenfinches, bram-
blings, tree - sparrows, buntings, yellow - hammers,
blue - tits, starlings, perhaps a blackbird or two,
pheasants and partridges, all about one and quite
near, one should choose a bitterly cold day with a
biting wind driving the snowflakes before it, and the
snow itself whitening the landscape, but not so deeply
as to cover things beyond a bird's power of scratching.
Rising early, one gets to the stack whilst it is still dark.
At one side there is always a great heap of refuse
material of the stack, threshed ears of corn, chopped
and winnowed straw, as well as — at least where pic-
turesque farming prevails (and may it long prevail) —

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200 BIRD WATCHING

a vast quantity of thistle-heads, poppy-pods, campion,
columbine, and all sorts of other plants and flowers
that have been garnered in with the harvest Small
birds come down on this in flocks, and where the slope
of the heap on one side joins the stack, one should
make in the latter, by a process of pulling out and
pressing in, a nice cosy cavern just big enough to
squeeze into. On the floor of this one should lay
a shawl or plaid, and then, enveloping oneself in
another, enter it backwards, and, kicking one's legs
farther into the body of the stack so as to be out of the
way, pull down the straw over the aperture, arranging
it thinly just in front of one's face so as to have a good
outlook. Even on the coldest morning one is warm
and comfortable under such circumstances, and the
snow without and frosted stalks that one's near breath
is thawing, make one feel all the warmer. It is for
warmth, indeed, that such an ensconcement is prin-
cipally needed, for on days like this small birds, at any
rate, will come within a few paces of one, if only one
sits still. Even when one walks up to the stack in
broad daylight, they only fly round to another side of
it, and one has scarcely settled oneself before they
begin to come again. But hidden thus before " black
night " has ceased to " steal the colours from things,"
one may have stragglers from the main crowd within
the length of one's arm, and I have even tried catching
one — for the bizarrerie of the thing — by gliding my
hand stealthily through the loose straw underneath
it The attempt failed, but I believe such a feat would
be quite possible.

As the light begins to creep upon the darkness and
the world to grow more and more white, the arrivals

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 201

commence. First a few greenfinches — principally
hens — fly down upon the heap, then chaffinches, both
cocks and hens, but hens predominating, with a few
yellow-hammers, mostly of immature plumage, and a
hedge-sparrow or two. These birds come and go
independently for some little time, and it is not till
the morning has grown lighter that they begin to
form a band, in the sense not of their numbers only,
but also of their actions. It is only gradually, for
instance, that their habit of all flying away together
into the neighbouring trees and returning quickly
again in the same way becomes at all marked. They
are at first independent units, but as the day
brightens and the numbers increase they become
more and more interdependent. Now, too, there is
more equality in the numbers of the sexes. The
females still predominate, but one would not always
think that this was the case, for as they all whirr
into a large oak tree that is beginning now to be
gilded by the beams of the tardily-rising sun, its bare
boughs and twigs, as well as the surrounding bushes,
are made suddenly lovely with bright, soft green and
mauvy-purplish red. A glorious winter foliage this,
that might make an old tree feel young again!

All the time the birds are down on the heap they
are busily feeding, seeming to put their whole soul
into each peck (like the single jest at the Mermaid)
and all in a kind of sociable, yet but half friendly, com-
petition with each other. Gradually they spread out
a little from the heap, half-a-dozen greenfinches are
amongst the straw that one has oneself pulled out
from the stack, and one of them is feeding positively
within three feet To see them so near, and to think

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202 BIRD WATCHING

that they think you anywhere rather than where you
are ! It is like eavesdropping, it hardly seems right
Now the nearest greenfinch picks out an ear of the
corn and, as if to show you just how he does it, comes
even a thought nearer. He turns it till it is crosswise
in his beak, snips off the stalk, rapidly divests it of
what remains of the outer huskiness — in doing which
you see him work his mandibles in a delicate, tactile
manner — and swallows the inner essence. Through-
out he does not help himself with his claws at all. It
is pleasant to see this, but still more so to have so
many little dicky birds just within a pace or two, all
free and unconstrained and knowing nothing whatever
about it It is as if you had somehow got into a
bird-cage without alarming the inmates, but even as
this occurs to you you recognise the poverty of the
simile, and rejoice to be in nature's aviary — at least
one may say this of the birds if not of the straw-
stack.

There is now, besides chaffinches and greenfinches,
which form the great bulk of the numbers, quite a
little crowd of bramblings — twenty or more — their
beautiful gold-russet plumage gleaming out in an
easy pre-eminence of colour ; for they are, indeed, much
handsomer than the handsomest cock chaffinch or
greenfinch, and as both the sexes are alike, nothing
of them is lost, there are no dead-weights. Even the
yellow-hammers when at their yellowest cannot com-
pete with these chestnut beauties, and the pretty little
blue-tits who feed softly — two or three together— on
the poppy seeds are beaten, whether they confess it or
not A hedge-sparrow or two hopping very quietly
and unobtrusively about on the outskirts of the great

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 203

central crowd have, of course, no pretensions to any-
thing like distinguished beauty, but there is one bird
—one, unfortunately, not only as a species but indi-
vidually — that may, perhaps, stand up in rivalry even
with the brambling.

This is a solitary male goldfinch who, as though
knowing the sad and waning state of his clan, feeds
all by himself and — as one seems to fancy — in a
melancholy manner. Be this as it may, his mode of
feeding is quite different to that of the other birds.
Whilst all, or nearly all, of these are pecking odds
and ends from amongst the straw and draff of the
heap, using their beaks only and seeming to swallow
something at each little peck, like chickens with
grain, he makes successive little excursions to the
stack itself, from which he extracts a blade of corn,
a campion, or a thistle-head, and then, standing with
the claws of both his feet grasping it (like a crow
with a piece of carrion), picks it to pieces and devours
it, or the seeds it contains, in a leisurely, almost a
phlegmatic, way. This is quite different from the
greenfinch, which — as just seen — in extracting the
grain from an ear of corn, uses only its bill, standing
the while in an ordinary upright attitude, and not
pick-axeing down upon it as it lies along the ground.
Perhaps the goldfinch can do this too, but as this
particular one did not on any morning employ a
different method to that which I have described, it
must, I should think, be the usual one; nor did I
ever see it pecking up anything from the ground in
a careless haphazard fashion, like the other birds.

One can feed the birds with bread if one likes, and,
when found and tasted, this is appreciated. But the

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204 BIRD WATCHING

pieces that one throws are not noticed, as they lie
amongst the straw, so readily as one would have sup-
posed, and often birds will pass quite near to, or even
almost touch them, without seeing them or, at least,
discovering what they are. A whole Osborne biscuit,
upon one occasion, was an object of suspicion. Several
chaffinches came up as though to peck at it, but their
courage failed them at the last moment, and it was
never touched the whole time I was there. Of course,
when larger and more wary birds come to the stack,
one must keep quite still and not play any tricks like
these, if one wishes them to stay. A hen blackbird
is now feeding on the outskirts of the heap. She will
not permit any small birds to be near her, but drives
them all off if they come within a certain distance, so
that she is soon in the centre of a little space which
she has all to herself. Into this a starling flies down
and seems at first inclined to meet the blackbird on
equal terms, for, of course, the two instantly recognise
each other as rivals, and cross swords as by mutual
desire. But even in the first encounter the starling
has to give way, and then beats a series of retreats
before the other's sprightly little rushes, till at length,
being left no peace, he has to fly away. Later, some
half-dozen starlings come down together almost on
the top of the heap, and feed in just the same way
as the small birds they alight amongst Soon there
is a combat between two of these. Both keep spring-
ing from the ground, going up again the instant they
alight, and each trying, as it seems, to jump above
the other, whether to avoid pecks delivered or the
better to deliver them. They never jump quite at
the same time, but always one goes up as the other

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 205

comes down, which has a funny effect They never
close or grapple, they do not even seem to do much
pecking, and when it is all over, neither of them
"seems one penny the worse." The great thing,
evidently, is to jump, and as long as a bird can do
it he has no cause to be dissatisfied. It is delightful
to watch them from so close. One can see the gleam
of each feather, catch their very expressions, and
sympathise with every spring. They look very thin
and elegant, and their plumage is all gloss and sheen.
All the while they keep uttering a sort of squealing
note which it is quite enchanting to hear.

A few partridges now come down over the thin
snow towards the stack, at first fast, with a pause
between each run, during which they draw them-
selves up and throw the head and neck a little back.
Then they seem to waver in their intention; and,
whilst one pecks at the body of a frosted swede,
another bends above it and sips with a delicate bill
a little of the rime upon its leaves. Then they come
on again, but, as they near the stack, with slower and
more hesitating steps, and no longer uttering their
curious, grating cry " ker-wee, ker-wee." Instead, one
hears now — for now they are in close proximity — all
sorts of pretty, little, soft, croodling sounds, seeming
to express contentment and happiness with a quiet
under-current of affection. Then they feed quietly
on the frontiers of their winter oasis.

All at once something gorgeous and burnished
steals and then flashes into sight It is a pheasant
He has come invisibly from another direction, and
ascending the opposite slope of the great chaff-
heap, rises over it like a second sun. Surely such

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206 BIRD WATCHING

splendour should come striding in majesty, but he is
very nervous, full of apprehension, open to the very
smallest ground of fear or suspicion. Often he stops
and looks anxiously about, half crouches, then makes
a little start forward with the body as though on the
point of running, but checks himself each time and
begins to peck instead. Sometimes he draws him-
self up to his full height, and looks all round as from
a watch-tower, but after each fit of fear he decides
that all is well and goes on feeding again. And
now another sun rises and immediately afterwards
three — no, four ("dazzle my eyes 9 or do I see four
suns?") advance together over the crest of the hill
which, though of straw and all inflammable materials,
does not — a miracle! — take fire and burn. But the
snow and the dampness must be taken into con-
sideration. All of them are now feeding quietly, but
not all together or in view. Two have set again, but
three and the tail of another, in partial eclipse from
behind, is a sight of sufficient magnificence. Look-
ing at them, at their splendid body -plumage of
burnished orange gold, gleaming even in the dull
morning without any sun but themselves — for the
great one is now "over-canopied" — at their glossy
blue heads, rich scarlet wattles, and long graceful
tails, one cannot help wondering how beautiful a
bird would have to be before compunction would
be felt in killing it Would the golden or Amherst
pheasant produce the sensation? Idle thought!
Peacocks are shot in India, trogons in Mexico, hum-
ming-birds both there and in the Brazils, and birds
of paradise in the islands of the east Of para-
dise . Then are there birds in heaven, and

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 207

do our sainted women wear their feathers? But
such speculations are beyond the province of this
work.

Now the feeding goes on apace. All the splendid
birds keep scratching backwards in the chaff-heap
as do fowls, sending up clouds of it into the air.
Like the partridges, too, they utter, from time to
time, a variety of curious, low notes, which, unless
one were quite near, one would never hear, and
once they make a quick little piping sound, all
together, standing and lifting up their heads to do
it, as though filled with mutual satisfaction and a
friendly feeling. The low sounds are of a croodling
or clucking character. They are not quite so soft
as those of the partridges, and, low as they are, one
still catches in them that quality of tone whereof
the loud, trumpety notes are made.

I have spoken of the extreme nervousness of the
first pheasant. The later arrivals, just as would be
the case with men, were not nearly so nervous,
though all were wary and circumspect. But now
it is most interesting to watch them, and to remark
how, in these cautious birds, timidity — or say, rather,
a proper and most necessary prudence — is tempered
with judgment, and modified by individual character
or temperament. They are capable of withstanding
the first sudden impulse to flight, and of subjecting
it to reason and a more prolonged observation. Thus,
when the small birds fly, suddenly, off in a cloud, as
they do every few minutes, and with a great whirr of
wings, the pheasants all stop feeding, look about,
pause a little, seeming to consider, and then recom-
mence, as though they had decided that such panic

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208 BIRD WATCHING

fear was uncalled for, and that there was no rational
ground for alarm. An hour or two later three out
of the four birds — for two have got gradually to
the other side of the stack — see enough of me in
the straw to make them suspicious, and go off at
half pace. The fourth bird notes their retreat,
looks all about, can see nothing to account for it,
and instead of following them, as might have been
expected, goes on feeding. This, though it may
seem to show a defect in the reasoning power (the
power itself it certainly does show), at least argues
strength of character and independence of judgment
A certain line of conduct is suggested by the action
of a bird's three companions, but this suggestion —
this powerful stimulus, one would think — is resisted
by the one bird, put to the test of its own powers
of observation, and the line of conduct dictated by
it, rejected. This self-reliant quality and power of not
being swayed by others, I have constantly observed
in birds.

As will have been gathered, these six pheasants
that came and fed together at the stack were all
males, and this has been my usual experience. Under
such circumstances I have always found them agree
together perfectly well, but there is generally some
fighting to be seen amongst the small birds, though,
perhaps, not much, if one takes their numbers into
consideration. Chaffinches are the most pugnacious,
though, here again, a similar allowance must be made,
for they largely predominate, even over greenfinches,
whilst, compared to these two, the others— excepting
sometimes bramblings — are only scantily represented.
Chaffinches fight by springing up from the ground

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 209

against each other, breast to breast (as do so many
birds), and they may rise thus to a considerable height,
each trying to get above the other, and claw or p^ck
down upon it — at least, it would seem so. Their
position in the air is thus perpendicular, and as they
mutually impede each other, they are more fluttering
than flying. Sometimes, however — generally after
they have got to a little height — they will disengage,
and then there will be between them a series of
alternate little flights up and above, and swoops down
upon each other, very inspiriting to see. Sometimes
they will commence the fight with these swoopings,
but it is more common for them to flutter perpen-
dicularly up as described, and then down again.
Often, too, they will rise beak to beak only, the
position being then between perpendicular and hori-
zontal, but more the latter, the tail part of them
giving constant little flirts upwards — as when a vol-
atile Italian in an umbrella shop leans his whole
weight on the stick of one of the umbrellas and leaps,
or, rather, swings himself from the ground, kicking
his heels into the air, to demonstrate its strength.
Imagine two volatile Italians thus testing two
umbrellas whose handles touch, continually throwing
up their heels, rising a little as they do so, never
coming quite down again, and so getting a little
higher each time, and you have the two chaffinches.
Or there will be a series of alternate flying jumps
from the ground like the starling's, but more aerial*
These are the more usual ways, but if one bird can,
whilst on the ground, suddenly seize another by the
nape of the neck, and then, getting on his back, twist
his beak about in the skin and feathers, it is all the
O

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210 BIRD WATCHING

better — for that one. Such fights as these are usually
between two male birds, but hen chaffinches some-
times fight, whilst scuffles between a cock and a hen
over food may also be witnessed.

Greenfinches fight in much the same manner, but
they are more stoutly built, and their motions are
not quite so brisk and airy, though chaffinches them-
selves are but clumsy birds in this respect compared
to many others — larks, for example. They, too, fight
tenaciously. After a brisk partie in the air, I have
seen one, on their falling together, seize the other
by the nape and be dragged about by it over the
snow.

But what has interested me more than anything
else in my frequent watchings of small birds con-
gregated together at the stacks, is the way in which
every few minutes or so — sometimes at longer, and
sometimes at shorter intervals — they take instant
and simultaneous flight, rising all together* with a
sudden whirr of wings, and flurrying away to some
near tree or trees, or into the hedgerow, to return
in a much more scattered and gradual manner very
soon — sometimes almost directly afterwards. These
sudden spontaneous flights, where one and the same
thought seems suddenly to take possession of a whole
assembly of beings, I had before, and have often
afterwards, observed in rooks, starlings, wood-pigeons,
etc, and I have been equally puzzled to account for
it in all of them. I do not remember that this habit,
which is, indeed, common in a greater or less degree
to a very great number of birds, has ever been brought

* This is the effect produced, but for greater accuracy see p. 245.

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 211

forward as something difficult of explanation, and
many, perhaps, will doubt there being any such
difficulty in regard to a thing so ordinary and
commonplace. As to this, I can only say that I
have arrived at a different conclusion.

What would be the ordinary way of accounting for
such sudden and simultaneous taking to flight of a
number of birds? One may suppose, in the first
place, that a particular note is uttered by one or
more of them on the espial of danger, and that this
acts as a sauve qui pent to the rest This seems a
satisfactory explanation, but as against it, no such note
is, as a rule, uttered, and even if it were, it would not
account for all the facts as I have often observed them.

Day after day, and for hours at a time, I have
watched these crowds of little birds under the circum-
stances described, and ortly on one single occasion
was the sudden rising into the air in flight preceded
by any note at all, nor did I observe anything — I do
not believe there was anything to be observed — which
could have frightened them.

In the one case referred to, which was different,
" the flight was certainly preceded by a note — a very
peculiar one, single, long, and remarkably loud, taking
the size of the birds into consideration. It suggested
somewhat the sudden blowing of a horn — though, of
course, a small one. I could not tell which bird uttered
it, but feel sure, from the quality of the tone, that it
was a greenfinch. To the best of my observation, the
note was uttered before the flight commenced, and the
flight followed before it had ceased. Almost imme-
diately afterwards I heard, for the first time, the caw
of rooks, and my theory is (or was) that one of these,

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212 BIRD WATCHING

appearing suddenly in the air from the back of the
hay-stack, had been mistaken for a hawk, and that the
bir^ so mistaking it had immediately uttered the
appropriate warning note. Unfortunately for my little
mouse" ("theories," says Voltaire, "are like mice;
they run through nineteen holes, but are stopped by
the twentieth"), "only the other day, when I was at
the same place and equally near, a genuine hawk (a
sparrow one) had flown by, when, instead of a warning
note, there had been a sudden hush and silence, fol-
lowed by a flight which, as it seemed to me, was not
so close and compact as usual. Difficulties of this sort
are always occurring in observation — at least in my
observation — arid show how cautious one should be
in translating the particular into the general For
instance, with moor-hens, I have noted that in one or
two of their many timoroos flights to the river a
peculiar cry was uttered by a single bird, which had
all the appearance and seemed to have all the prob-
ability of being a warning note ; but this was not the
case on other occasions." Even here, then, there is
some difficulty in accepting the theory of a danger-
signal uttered by one bird, and causing the simul-
taneous flight of all, whilst in all other instances (I
am speaking now of small birds at the stacks) either
no note at all or none distinguishable from a general
chirping was uttered. Manifestly,* then, this explan-
ation will not serve. But it may be said, either that
there is a leader whose movements all the birds follow,
or that when one bird flies, for whatever reason, the
rest take alarm and fly also. But where different
species of birds are all banded together, it seems very

* My very close proximity must be taken into account

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 213

unlikely that there should be a leader, and both this
and the other explanation, which at first sight seems
satisfactory, are destroyed by the salient fact that in
hardly any case do all the birds rise and fly away
together, but only the great majority. Almost invari-
ably a certain number of them, though sometimes only
half-a-dozen or so, or even less, remain, nor has this
anything to do with the particular species of bird.
Moreover, the flying up of any bird from the crowd
does not, of itself, communicate alarm to the others,
for first one and then another and often several at a
time may constantly be doing so, whilst the rest feed
quietly and take no notice. It may be said that it is
only when a bird flies off in alarm that its flight com-
municates alarm to its companions. That it does so
necessarily, even in such a case, I, from general obser-
vation, very much doubt, and also, if the facts as I
have given them be a little considered, it will be seen
that the difficulties are not met by this view of the
case.

The theory of a leader seems more applicable to
birds like rooks, which are gregarious, and may be con-
stantly watched in large numbers together, without the
intermixture of any other species. The same diffi-
culties, however, apply here, and even to a greater ex-
tent, for the movements of rooks are more complicated,
whilst alarm or any such primary impulse as the origin
(I do not say the explanation) of them, is in most cases
quite out of the question. An instance or two of these
sudden and quite simultaneous movements of bodies
of rooks I have noted down directly after observing
them. They would be much in place here, but as I
have two chapters devoted to these birds, and, more-

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214 BIRD WATCHING

over, as they but make a part in general scenes and
pictures, I will not separate them from their context
nor any bird from its companions.

Starlings, again, furnish striking examples of the
same phenomenon. Their aerial evolutions before
roosting are sufficiently remarkable, but, perhaps, still
more so from this point of view is the manner in which
they leave the roosting-place in the morning. This
is not in one great body, as might have been expected,
but in successive flights at intervals of some three or
four to ten or twelve minutes, each flight comprising,
sometimes, hundreds of thousands of birds — the num-
bers, of course, will vary in different localities — and
the whole exodus occupying about half- an -hour.
Each of these great flights or uprushes from the dense
brake of bush and undergrowth where the birds are
congregated, takes place with startling suddenness, and
it seems as though every individual bird composing
it were linked to every other by some invisible material,
as are knots on the meshes of a net by the visible
twine connecting them. There is no preliminary*
nor does it seem as though a certain number of more
restless individuals gradually affected others, but at
once a huge mass roars up from the still more im-
mense multitude, as does a wave from the sea, or as a
sudden cloud of dust is puffed by the wind from a
dust-heap. I am speaking here of the great main
flights, which are, in most cases, of this character. The
fact that quite small bands of birds will sometimes fly

* As far, at least, as observable from just outside the plantation, and to
judge from the sound. But previous movements within the plantation —
unless we assume a quite human organisation — would not explain what
is here assumed to require explanation.

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 215

off between the intervals of these, does not detract
from the more striking phenomenon or lessen the
difficulty of explaining it. For, surely, there is a diffi-
culty in explaining how the example of one vast body
of birds, soaring forth on the morning flight, should
not affect every individual of the still vaster body of
which they form a part — the whole occupying, it must
be remembered, a small and densely packed area — and
why the impulse of the flying birds to fly should,
apparently, become uncontrollable in each individual
of them at the same instant of time. If we saw soldiers
issuing in this manner from an encampment, or per-
forming all sorts of collective movements and evolu-
tions before entering it in the evening (as do the star-
lings before descending on their roosting place), and
yet satisfied ourselves that there were neither captains
nor officers, signals nor words of command amongst
them, we should probably wonder, and might think the
phenomenon sufficiently curious to make it worth study
and investigation.

I will take one more example from my notes on
wood-pigeons before returning to the flocks of small
birds at the stacks.

" A number of wood - pigeons " (this was early on a
very cold winter's morning) " have now settled on the
elms near me. I am quite still, and they have sat
there quietly for some little time. All at once the
whole band fly out, to all appearance at one and the
same moment, and in a peculiar way, with sudden
sweeps and rushes through the air in a downward
direction, shooting and zig-zagging across each other
with a whizzing whirr of the wings, in much the same
manner as do rooks. On account of this peculiar

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216 BIRD WATCHING

flight, which seems to be joyous and sportive, I do
not believe they have seen me. But whether they
have or not, the absolutely simultaneous flight of the
whole body is, to me, equally hard to account for.
Supposing — what would be most likely — that only
one bird has seen me, how has this knowledge been
communicated, instantaneously, to all the rest ? There
was no note uttered of any kind. I must have heard
it, I think, if it had been, so near as I was, nor are
pigeons supposed to have an alarm-note. It may be
said that the sudden abrupt flight of one alarmed the
rest, but all cannot have been looking at this one at
the same time, and it is difficult to suppose that there
was anything to discriminate in the actual sound of the
wings — for one or more than one bird may, at any time,
fly eagerly off without affecting the others. Moreover,
if this were the explanation, there would have been
an appreciable interval of time between the flight of
the alarmed bird and the others, which, to my sense,
there was not But, as I say, I do not believe that
the birds saw me, and, if not, the collective, instan-
taneous impulse of flight seems still harder to account
for on ordinary known principles. It is, of course,
easy to give a plausible explanation of a thing and
take for granted that all the facts are in accordance.
But the facts, when one watches them, are apt to
discredit the theory. Observation and difficulties
begin, often, at the same time."

Returning now to the little winter collections of
chaffinches, greenfinches, bramblings, etc., which come
and feed at the corn -stacks during the winter, in
general they whirr up every three or four minutes,
but the intervals vary, and may be much longer.

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 217

Sometimes only about half the flock flies off, the rest
not appearing to care much about it ; usually a much
greater number does, and this often appears to be
the whole number, but almost always — unless, of
course, on the approach of a man or some other such
alarming occurrence — some few, at least, remain. As
with the starlings, these flights seem often to be abso-
lutely instantaneous, the birds all rising together in
a solid block, but this is not always the case, and the
cloud may be preceded by a little half-hopping, half-
chass6eing about of three or four individuals, whilst
sometimes there is, for a second or two, a very quick
following of one another. If this were always so,
and if one bird could, not fly off without others
following it, there would be little or nothing to explain,
but, as we have seen, this is very far from being the
case. In nine cases out of ten the birds begin to
come back almost as soon as they are gone ; but, in
spite of this, I came to the conclusion that the cause
of flight was almost always a nervous apprehension,
such as actuates schoolboys when they are doing
something of a forbidden nature and half expect to see
the master appear at any moment round the corner.
Though there might be no discernible ground for
apprehension, yet after some three or four minutes it
seemed to strike the assembly that it could not be
quite safe to remain any longer, and presto ! they
were gone. Afterwards it was recognised that there
had been no real reason for alarm, and they came
back, but this seemed to strike them individually
rather than collectively. Now it was by stacks in
the open fields under no more cover, as a rule,
than the neighbouring hedgerow, that I had noticed

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218 BIRD WATCHING

these phenomena, and, coming one day upon such a
heap of chaff or draff — though without any stack —
in the centre of a small plantation of fir and pine
trees, I determined to watch here, a number of small
birds having flown up as I approached. I was able
to conceal myself very well amidst some bushes that
grew quite near, and very shortly the birds— chaf-
finches, bramblings, hedge and tree - sparrows, etc.,
but not greenfinches — were down again. I stayed a
considerable while, but, except once or twice when
I moved a little so as to alarm them, they remained
feeding all or most of the time. Sometimes, indeed,
some or other of them would fly into the surrounding
trees or bushes, but this they did at their leisure,
without alarm or hurry, and only as desiring a change.
The simultaneousness was wanting — there were none
of those nervous flights at short intervals that I had
observed when watching at the open corn-stacks.
Here, amongst the pines, and protected on every side,
the birds felt, apparently, quite secure, though whether
it was altogether a rational security may be ques-
tioned. This observation strengthened me in my
conclusion as to these flights being caused by a feeling
of nervous apprehension or alarm, but I am bound
to add (another case of the mouse) that I subse-
quently watched by stacks in the open, where, also,
a considerable sense of security seemed to prevail
Temperature may perhaps have something to do
with the explanation, but I have as yet taken no
steps to test this theory.

But whatever may be the motive (which, of course,
may vary) of such sudden flights — and here I am
thinking of all the examples which I have brought

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 219

forward, as well as others, in fact, the whole range
of the phenomena — how are we to account for their
simultaneousness, and the other special features
belonging to them?

It would seem as though either one and the same
idea were flashed suddenly into the minds of a
number of birds in close proximity to each other at
one and the same instant of time, or that this same
idea, having originated or attained a certain degree
of vehemence, at some one point or points — repre-
senting some individual bird or birds — spread from
thence, as from one or more centres, with incon-
ceivable rapidity, so as to embrace either the whole
group or a portion of it, according to the strength
of the original outleap. In other words, I suppose
(or, at least, I suggest it) that birds when gathered
together in large numbers think and act, not indi-
vidually, but collectively; or, rather, that they do
both the one and the other, for that individual birds
are capable of withstanding the collective influence
of the flock of which they form a part, I have ample
evidence. The old Athenians — though slave-holders,
wherein they may be compared to the Americans
at one period — were a very democratic people, and
lived a more public life than any other civilised
community either before or after them, of which we
have any record. They were also of a very emo-
tional temperament, and it is curious to find amongst
them the idea (at any rate) of the <fai*n — a sudden
wave or current of thought which swept through
an assembly, causing it to think and act as one
man.* When watching numbers of birds together, this

* In the wilderness of Grote's twelve volumes I cannot, now, find the

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mo BIRD WATCHING

<t*nm idea has constantly been brought to my mind,
nor do I see how the whole of the facts are to be
explained except upon some such hypothesis. If we
suppose that the sudden flunyings away of a band
of small birds from the chaff-heap where they have
been quietly feeding, are caused by the apprehension
of danger, we may well credit the birds with having
sharper senses than our own, though that they are
often mistaken is shown by their almost immediate
return, and also by as many of them (sometimes)
remaining as fly away. But it is impossible to
imagine that every individual bird of a large number,
crowded together and busily feeding, can at the same
instant of time see the same object, or even hear the
same sound of alarm, unless very loud or conspicuous,
nor can it be supposed that the same thought, pro-
ducing the same action, can flash independently into
all their minds at once, by mere chance. But if we
suppose thought to be like a wind, sweeping amongst
them and producing, each time that it rises to a
certain degree of strength, its appropriate act, then
we can understand fifty, seventy, or a hundred birds
rising in this thought-wind, like leaves or straws
blown up in a sudden gust, and, in the same way
as when a blizzard or tornado bursts on a town,
some frail objects in a room through which it has
torn may be left standing, whilst everything else is
strewed about in ruin, so may the thought-wave (to
use the more familiar term) moving with inconceivable

passage which I seem to remember so well, nor can anyone (including
the whole of the Psychical Research Society) help me to. My Greek
word, I am told, too, is wrong. But let it stand till someone can give
me the right one.

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rapidity amidst the flock, miss out some individuals,
though right in the midst of those that are affected,
in a manner which is hard to account for. Again,
if we suppose two centres from which two opposite
thought - waves or impulses spread, we can under-
stand two groups of birds, which, together, have
made one band, acting in different ways or going in
different directions (as one may constantly see with
rooks and starlings), whilst, by supposing that the
wave, or energy, tends to exhaust itself after spread-
ing to a certain distance around any point or centre
where it may have originated or become focussed,
we account for such facts as many thousands of
starlings, say, rising from, perhaps, a million without
the others being affected. But, no doubt, even in an
Athenian assembly there were some men capable of
withstanding the force of the <faiM, and if we give
to birds, even when thus assembled together, a power
of individual as well as collective action, varying in
each unit so that the one power is now more and
now less under the control of the other — but with, on
the whole, a preponderance in favour of the latter —
we then, as it appears to me, come near to explain-
ing what I must regard as the often very puzzling
problem of the movements of such assembled bodies.
This, of course, is the theory of thought-trans-
ference, and if this power does really exist in the
case of any one species we might expect it to exist
also in the case of others. With the evidence of its
existence amongst ourselves I am not unacquainted,
but I need say nothing of this or of my humble
opinion concerning it, here. I have suggested it as
a possible explanation of some of the actions of birds,

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222 BIRD WATCHING

because I have found it difficult to account for them
in any other way. If it could be made out that
animals did really, in some degree, possess this
power, it might throw a new light upon many things,
and, possibly, explain some difficulties of a larger
kind than those which I have called it in to do. To
me, at least, it has always seemed a little curious that
language of a more perfect kind than animals use has
been so late in developing itself; but animals would
feel less the want of a language if thought-transfer-
ence existed amongst them to any appreciable extent
Assuming its existence, it is amongst gregarious
animals that we might expect to find it most de-
veloped, and gregariousness has, probably, preceded
any great mental advance. Therefore, before an
animal reached a grade of intelligence such as
might render the growth of a language possible,
it would have become gregarious; and, assuming
it then to have a certain power of feeling, and
being influenced by the thought of its fellows,
without the aid of sound or gesture, it is ob-
vious that here would be a power tending to dull
and weaken that struggle to express thought by
sound, which may be supposed to have slowly and
unconsciously led to the formation of a language.
Here, then, would be a retarding influence. Still, as
ideas communicated in this way would probably be of
a general and simple kind, corresponding, perhaps,
more to emotions and sensations than definite ideas,
the need for more precise impairment would gradu-
ally, as mental power became more and more
developed, become more and more felt Then would
come language (as spoken), and spoken language,

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WATCHING BIRDS AT A STRAW-STACK 223

once established, would tend to weaken the old primi-
tive power, as an improvement on which it had arisen.
Thus if thought-transference exist in man, it may,
perhaps, represent a reversion to a more primitive and
generalised means of mental intercommunion, or the
older power may exist, and still occasionally act, or
even do so habitually to some extent ; in fact, it
may not yet have entirely died out Possibly, also,
it might tend to survive, and even to some extent
increase, as being, in certain ways and directions,
superior to the more precise medium. But if so, it
would become — unless specially cultivated — more and
more limited to these directions. Certain it is that
people seem often to approach each other mentally
much more by feeling than by words, and in a
wonderfully short space of time. We call this insight,
intuitive perception, affinity, etc., — but such words do
not explain the process.

Is it not possible that birds living habitually
together, as part of a crowd, may have acquired the
faculty of thinking and acting all together, or in masses,
each one's mind being a part of the general mind of the
whole band, but each possessing, also, its individual
mind and will, by virtue of which it is enabled to sus-
pend its general crowd-acting, aftd act individually?

Perhaps a careful observation of gregarious animals
in a wild state, or even (if a more special definition be
wanted) of large crowds or masses of men, might
throw some light upon this subject, and it would, at
any /ate, be approaching it upon a broader basis, and
by methods less tainted with our silly prejudices,
than has hitherto been done.

But when I speak of gregarious animals in a wild

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state, I am forgetting that such hardly any longer
exist The great herds of bisons, zebras, antelopes,
giraffes, etc, that once roamed over places now given
over to humanity (and inhumanity) have disappeared,
and what have we learnt from them? Who has
watched them — at least very carefully or patiently —
with thoughts other than of their slaughter ? I know
of no careful record of their movements, taken from
hour to hour and from day to day. A few generali-
ties, conveying some of the more obvious and striking
facts — or what seemed to be so— will alone survive
their extinction. Enlightened curiosity has been
drowned in bloodthirstiness, and the coarse pleasure
of killing has over-ridden in us the higher ones of
observation and inference. We have studied animals
only to kill them, or killed them in order to study
them. Our "zoologists" have been thanatologists.
Thus the knowledge gleaned even by the sportsman-
naturalist has been scant and bare, for — besides that
the proportions of the mixture are generally as
FalstafF and FalstafPs page — there is little to be seen
between the sighting of the quarry and the crack of
the rifle. Observation has commonly left off just
where it should have begun.

Had we as often stalked animals in order to observe
them, as we have in order to kill them, how much
richer might be our knowledge!

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CHAPTER IX

Watching Birds in the
Greenwoods

I HAVE called attention in the last chapter to that
independent or self-reliant quality which so many
birds possess, and by virtue of which they often act
differently to their fellows, even when there is a strong
inducement to them to act as they do. This seems
to me an important point, for it must be as the
foundation-stone upon which change of habit would
be built, and change of habit points out a certain
path along which change of structure, were it to
occur, would be preserved, and a new species be
thus formed.

One might think that the most timid birds would,

under ordinary circumstances, be the ones least liable

to change their habits, for such change would often

mean a penetrating into "fresh fields and pastures

P 225

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226 BIRD WATCHING

new," where they might be expected to fear and
distrust in a higher degree than amidst surroundings
with which they were familiar. This, perhaps, may
be the case, but one must distinguish between
timidity and a wary caution or prudence, which
may be combined with an independent, perhaps
one may even say a bold, spirit

The moor-hen is an example of such a combina-
tion. I have watched these birds for hours browsing
over some meadow-land, bordering a small and very
quiet stream, near where I live. Sometimes there
would be a dozen or twenty scattered over a wide
space, and every now and again, when something
had alarmed them, the whole troop, one taking the
cue from another, would run or fly pell-mell to the
water, most of them swimming across and taking
refuge in a belt of reeds skirting the opposite bank,
whilst some few would remain floating in mid-
stream, ready to follow their companions if neces-
sary. In two or three minutes, or sometimes less,
they would all be back browsing again, and so
continue till, all at once, there was another panic
rush and flight The cause of these stampedes was
generally undiscoverable ; but sometimes, when the
birds stayed some time down on the water, the
figure of a rustic would at length appear, walk-
ing behind a hedge, along a path bounding the
little meadow. Of such a figure rooks and many
other birds would have taken no notice, even when
considerably nearer. One cause of alarm I fre-
quently noted, and this was where another moor-
hen would come flying over the meadow, either to
alight amongst those upon it, or making for a more

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 227

distant point of the stream. Such birds, though not
alarmed themselves — for I frequently saw the com-
mencement and spontaneous nature of their flights —
yet always brought alarm to the others : a fact which
seems to me interesting, for it cannot be supposed
that these would have been disquieted at the mere
sight of one of their kind, and if they judged from
the flying bird's manner that it was seeking safety,
then they judged wrongly. This, again, does not
seem likely, and the only remaining explanation is
that they drew an inference — " This bird may be flying
from danger" — which, I think, must have been the
case. At any rate, each time it was a sauve qui peut,
one of themselves sent them all in a race to the
water, just as a dog or a man would have done. But
I must qualify the word " all." Often — perhaps each
time — one or two birds might be seen (like the
pheasant) to glance warily about, as though to assure
themselves whether there was danger or not, standing,
the while, in a hesitating attitude, and ready, on the
slightest indication, to follow their companions. Then,
having satisfied themselves, they would continue
quietly to browse — for moor-hens browse the grass
of meadows as do geese.

Coming, now, to the opposite side of the bird's
character — its boldness and enterprise — I remember
one afternoon, when I had been watching the stone
curlews, seeing, just as evening was falling, a moor-
hen walking along the piece of wire netting which
skirted a wheat-field, or rather an arid waste of sand
where some wheat was feebly attempting to grow.
The whole country around was the chosen haunt of
the former birds, as opposed, therefore, to anything

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228 BIRD WATCHING

damp, moist, or marshy, as can well be imagined.
The moor-hen went steadily on, with a composed and
mind-made-up step, never deviating from the straight
line of the netting till, upon coming to where this was
continued at a right angle in another direction, it
found its way through, and proceeded to cross a
green road skirted with fir-trees into another Sahara-
like waste, where I lost it, at least a quarter of a mile
from the nearest little pond or pool. Possibly it was
walking from one of these to another, but quite as
probably — in my experience — it was leaving its
ordinary haunts for some inland part it had dis-
covered, where it could get food to its liking. For
the moor-hens living in the little creek or stream
that I used to watch would range over the adjacent
meadow-land, and a few of them, having come to
the limit of this, would climb up a steep bank and
through a hedge at its top, down again into a little
bush and bramble-grown patch on the other side.
One bird, indeed, that I startled, actually climbed
this bank and scrambled through the hedge into
the patch, instead of flying to the water; which
is as though a lady were to take up Shakespeare
rather than a novel, or a servant-maid to act by
reason instead of by rote. Again, I have startled a
moor-hen out of a large tree standing in a thicket,
and a good way back from the ditch surrounding
it — such a tree as one might have expected to
see a wood-pigeon fly out of, but certainly not a
moor-hen.

Such variations of habit are to me more interesting
than those of structure, for they represent the mind,
as do the latter — which they have probably in most

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 229

cases preceded — the body. Changes of structure,
too, if slight, are not easy to see, and as soon as
they become observable the varying animal is dubbed
another species, or, at least, a variety of the old
one, so that one is not allowed, as it were, to
see the actual passage from form to form ; — one
is always either at one end of the bridge or the
other end. But changed habits may be marked in
transitu, and there is hardly, perhaps, a bird or a
beast which, if closely watched, will not be seen to
act sometimes in a manner which, if persisted in to
the neglect of its more usual circle of activities, would
make it, in effect, a new being, though dressed in an
old suit of clothes. Thus, in such a bird as the robin,
which is associated — and rightly — in the popular
mind with the cottage, the little rustic garden, and
with woodlands wild — such scenes and surroundings,
in fact, as are represented, or used to be, on Christmas
cards — one may get a hint of some future little red-
breasted, water-loving bird, at first no more aquatic
than the water-wagtail, but becoming, perhaps, as
time goes on, as accomplished a diver and dinger
to stones at the bottom of running streams as is the
water-ouzel — a bird as to which, Darwin says, "the
acutest observer by examining its dead body would
never have suspected its sub-aquatic habits."

To illustrate this, I take from my notes the follow-
ing: — "A robin" — it is in December — "flies on to
the trunk of a fallen tree spanning the little stream,
from thence on to some weedy scum lying against
it on the water, from which he picks something off
and returns again to the trunk. Two or three times
again he flies down and hops about on the weeds,

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230 BIRD WATCHING

and sometimes, whilst doing so, pecks at the great
black trunk. Now he is standing on them con-
tentedly, with the water touching his crimson breast-
feathers. He is in his first or more primitive
figure, for the robin has two. Either he is a little
round globe with a sunset in him — his rotundity
being broken only by a beak and a tail — or else
very elegant, dapper, and well set up. In the first
he is fluffy, for he has ruffled out his feathers, but
in the last he has pressed them down and is smooth
and glossy — has almost a polish on him." Again,
whilst walking by the river in the early morning,
the water being very low, "a robin hops down
over the exposed shingle, to near the water's edge,
then flies across to the opposite more muddy sur-
face, and hops along it, pecking here and there.
He again flies across and proceeds in the same way,
always going up the stream, crosses again, and so on.
Each time he is farther away from me, and now I
lose sight of him ; but this is evidently his system.
How out of character he seems amidst the mud and
ooze of the dank river-bed on this chill winter's
morning, how little like the robin of poetry and
Christmas-card, how much more in the style of some
little mud-loving, stilt-walking bird : for this is often
their manner of zig-zagging from shore to shore up
or down the stream. I have noticed it but now in the
redshank. Yet the old associations are with him,
for this is home, and the thatched cottage peeps over
the familiar hedge."

And here I will chronicle an experience — my own,
if it be not that of others. Provided there be shrub-
bery about, there are but few places here in England

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 231

where one can sit quietly for very long, without a
robin stealing softly out and, as it were, sliding him-
self into the landscape. Then — however bleak or
chill it may be — his presence seems to bring home
comforts with it But this is only when one is near
home and home comforts — not when one is far, far
away from them. I remember in the great pine-
forests of Norway — so lovely yet so stern in their
loveliness — the robin seemed to have lost all his
character. He did not suggest home and all its
pleasures when home was no longer near. It was
not (or perhaps it was) that by suggestion he made
these seem farther off, but that his character seemed
gone. Surely, things are to us as a part of what they
move in with us, and, out of this, seem changed and
to be something else.

I am not quite sure if the following represents any
change of habits in regard to food, induced by the
presence of a foreign tree, in any of the three birds
that it concerns. I have occasionally watched the
great-tit in our own fir-plantations, but have not yet
seen him attacking the cones, though the coal-tit, as I
believe, does so. For the greenfinch I can only say
that I should not have thought it of him, nor is he
often to be seen in such places. The nut-hatch is not
common where I live.

" Standing this Christmas Eve under a large exotic
conifer on the lawn of the garden here in Gloucester-
shire, I became aware that various birds were busy
amongst its branches, and I kept hearing a curious
grating noise with a strong vibration in it, which
seemed to be made by them with the beak upon the
large fir-cones, but as the branches were very close

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232 BIRD WATCHING

together, and the birds high up, I could not observe
the manner of it — the sound (as I said before) being
very peculiar. I therefore climbed the tree (which was
easy), and the birds being now often quite near —
though the branches and great clusters of needle-tufts
were much in the way — I ascertained that it was the
greenfinch alone which was producing the peculiar,
vibratory noise, but how, exactly, he did it I could
not make out He appeared to be tearing at the
woody sheaths or clubs (which stood wide apart) of
the large fir-cones, and it seemed as though, to give the
vibration in the sound, either the mandibles must work
against each other with extraordinary swiftness, or the
clubs of the cone itself vibrate in some manner against
the beak, thus causing the sound in question to mingle
with the scratching made by the latter against the
hard surface.

"The great-tit and the nut-hatch are also busy at
the cones. The former strikes them repeatedly with
his bill, making a quick * rat-tat-tat/ He attacks them
either from the branch or twigs from which they hang,
striking downwards, or clinging to the side of one and
striking sideway-downwards, or even hanging at their
tips, in which case he hammers up at them. Whilst
hammering, or rather pick-axeing, he often bends his
head very sharply from the body — almost at a right
angle — towards the point at which his blow is aimed,
and he then becomes, as it were, a natural, live pick-
axe, of which his body is the handle and his head
and beak the pick. After hammering a little on
one of two cones that hang together, he perches
on the other one, and, in the intervals of hammer-
ing it, shifts his head to the first and gives it, as

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 233

it seems, a sharp investigatory glance. He then
flies away.

"A nut-hatch, also, I twice see hammering at the
cones, in much the same manner as the tit, and, having
loosened a thin brown flake from one of them, he flies
off with it in his beak. I have not yet seen the tit do
this, nor did I ever see him get an insect. If he got
anything at all, it must have been in one of the actual
blows, become a peck, as when he hammers at a
cocoa-nut hung in the garden. The greenfinches
never hammered, but only bit and tugged at the clubs
of the cones. Brown flakes often fell down from them,
but I never saw the birds fly off with these, as the nut-
hatch has done. I had seen one with a flake in his
bill which, however, he soon let fall to the ground.

"One of the greenfinches is again attacking the
cones, and I can now see the way he does it more
plainly. He places his beak between the clubs of the
cones at their tips (I mean their outer ends), and then
moves his head and beak rapidly, seeming, as it were,
to flutter with his head, and as he does this you hear
the grating, vibratory sound. All the time, he is cling-
ing head downwards to the side of the cone, quite a
feat for so large, at least for such a stout-built bird.
I will not, however, be quite sure that it is to the cone
itself that he clings. The fir-needles hang in bunches
near them, and his claws may be fixed amongst these,
though I do not think so, or, at least, not always.
Besides this sound made with the beak on the fir-
cones, there is another, which one often hears, and
which is usually, I think, made by the greenfinch. To
get at the cones, he often flies up underneath them,
and hangs a little, thus, before clinging, on fluttering

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234 BIRD WATCHING

wings. When the tips of these strike amongst the
bunches of needles, a sharp, thin, vibratory rattle is
produced — also a very noticeable sound.

" The nut-hatch — or another one — now flies in again,
uttering, as he arrives, a curious, high, sharp note —
' zitch, zitch, zitch ' — and again flies away with a thin
brown flake in his bill, a very woody morsel it would
seem. And now, later in the afternoon, I see a great-
tit probing the cones with his bill, and he also pulls
out a brown flake and flies away with it Another
does the same, hanging from the tip of a cone, on
which he afterwards perches for a moment, before
flying with it to another tree. Whilst standing, all
this time, in the tree, I had noticed little hard brown
seeds about the size of apple-pips, and which had all
been cracked, lying in the forks formed by the junction
of the branches with the trunk. There was hardly
one such resting-place in which there were not a few
of these cracked seeds. Pulling off a fir-cone, I began
to pull it to pieces, and at once saw, at the base of
every club where it had joined and helped to form the
central pillar, the double indentation, one on either
side of the median line — or mid-rib as it would be
called in a true leaf — in which the two seeds had been
lying. Soon I came upon a seed itself, and, attached
to the outer end of it — that farthest from the base of
the club — I at once recognised the little brown flaky
leaf that I had seen in the bills of all three birds, but
which none of them seemed to eat

" Here, then, the whole mystery — for to my ignor-
ance it had been such — was explained. The birds were
picking out the seeds from the cone, and the way to
do this was to seize the thin brown flake to which the

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 235

seed was attached, and which lay all along inside each
club or leaf of the cone, whereas the seed itself was
right at the base, and the beak of the birds could not,
perhaps (or not so easily), be pushed up so far between
the stiff clubs, the hard edges of which would catch
their foreheads uncomfortably. At least with the tit
and greenfinch, whose bills are not long, this would
seem to be likely. When the birds — as was evi-
dently often the case — pulled out only the thin flake-
leaf which had become detached from the seed, they
let it fall negligently, thus conveying the impression
that they had been taking trouble to no end. When,
however, they flew away with it, it is to be presumed
the seed was attached.

" Here, then, are three quite different birds, all busily
occupied in extracting the seeds from the large cones
of an exotic species of fir, but whilst two of them —
the great-tit and the nut-hatch— effect this by first
hammering on the cone, so as to loosen the seeds, or,
rather, the woody flake to which they are attached,
from the basal part of the club (if we may assume
this to be the object) before pulling them out, the
greenfinch procures them without any previous
hammering, which is an action, perhaps, to which it
is not accustomed. One should not, however, assume
too hastily that the latter bird has no plan of his own
for first loosening the seeds. Remembering the rapid,
almost fluttering, motion — not at all like pecking or
hammering — which he communicates to his head and
bill, with the curious, vibratory sound — which again
does not suggest an ordinary blow — that accompanies
it, and how often when I could get a fairly good view
of him, he seemed to be repeatedly seizing and letting

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236 BIRD WATCHING

his bill slip over the outer edges of the fir-clubs, I am
inclined to think that he was making the stiff clubs
vibrate on their stalks — their hinges, so to speak —
in a manner that would tend to loosen the seeds as
effectually, perhaps, as would tapping them.

"Judging by these limited observations, I should say
that the nut-hatch was the most skilful of the three in
extracting the seeds, as, on the two occasions when I
saw him plainly, he flew away with a flake, soon (once
almost immediately) after he had come. He looked
more like a connoisseur, too, and his bill is much
longer. He alone, as I should think, might possibly
be able to drive it right down, so as to seize the
actual seed. Yet he tapped the cone in the same
quick manner as did the tit, nor did he appear to me
to be probing it at such times. Moreover, I never
observed him — any more than the others — to extract
the seed independently of the flake."

Birds that are not tree-creepers will often behave
very much as if they were so, and show different
degrees of expertness in the art. It seems quite
natural that a small bird, which habitually frequents
trees, should sometimes cling to the trunk ; but what
surprises me is, that with so much raw material to
have worked upon, nature should not have developed
some of our small perching birds into actual tree-
creepers. My observations on the blue-tit and the
wren show, at least, that should anything occur to
make it difficult for them to procure food in other
ways, or should they (and this is easier to imagine)
develop a partiality for some particular kind of insect
or other creatures living in the chinks or under the
bark of trees — say spiders, for instance, which are

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 237

often to be found there in colonies — they would be
all ready to become specialised experts. At least it
appears to me so, and I think it the more curious
because they do not seem often to practise what they
can do so well Here is my note, taken in October,
when, perhaps, there would be a little more scarcity
of the ordinary food of such birds, than in the spring
and summer of the year.

"In a grove of Scotch firs this morning I noted,
first a blue-tit, clinging to the trunk of one in the
same manner as a nut-hatch or tree-creeper. Hardly
had he flown off it when a wren flew to and com-
menced to ascend perpendicularly the trunk of a
tree quite near me, flying thence to another which
it also ascended, and so on from tree to tree. After-
wards, however, I was able to watch blue-tits acting
in this manner for some little time, as well as quite
closely, and I decided that they were the greater
adepts of the two. They climbed the perpendicular
or overhanging trunk with ease and swiftness, cling-
ing to the roughnesses of the bark, at which they
pecked from time to time, I imagine for insects.
Usually they went straight upwards, but sometimes
more or less slantingly. I also noted — and this I
had not been able to do for certain in the wren —
that they descended as well as ascended the trunks
of the trees; but here the manner of progressing
was not quite so scansorial, for it was with a little
flutter. Whether they used the feet as well as the
wings in the descent I could not actually see, but
they kept quite near enough to the trunk to have
done so. These little fluttering drops or drop-runs
interested me very much. The bird never made

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238 BIRD WATCHING

them except whilst hanging on the trunk of the tree
perpendicularly and head downwards, and when he
stopped and clung to it again he was in precisely
the same position. The drop each time might have
been from four to six or seven inches. It never
appeared to me to be more. Both the blue-tit, there-
fore, and the wren have acquired the habit of creeping
about the trunks of trees, in search, presumably, of
insects or spiders, as do the tree-creepers, wood-
peckers, and nut-hatch. The former of them can
descend the trunk, but not, it would appear, without
the aid of its wings, either wholly or in part For
the wren, I saw him descend once, as I think, in a
quick side-eye-shot; but some nettles intervened,
and I cannot be sure."

"On the next morning I am at the same grove,
and, about seven, a good many blue-tits fly into it,
one of which is soon busily occupied on the trunk
of a fir-tree. I now observe that this bird uses his
wings even in ascending the trunk, for though he
certainly crawls up it, yet he accompanies each fresh
advance, after a pause, with a little flutter, and
advance and flutter end commonly together, taking
him but a very little way. A tree-creeper on the
same tree, who moves deftly about, pressed much
flatter to the trunk and never using his wings, gives
a good opportunity of comparing the two birds —
the professional and the amateur. Now, both accord-
ing to my memory and my notes, the tits I saw
yesterday did not flutter at all while ascending the
tree — at any rate, that one which I saw quite close
both ascending and descending, on which my note
was principally based, did not ; for though I saw

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 239

others, this one gave me the best and longest view,
and the only one of the descent Had he fluttered
in the ascent also, I must certainly have noted it,
and I should not, then, have placed the two in such
contradistinction. If an inference may be drawn
from such limited observation, it, perhaps, is that this
bird is in process of acquiring, or, at any rate, of
perfecting, a habit, and that, therefore, all the indivi-
duals do not excel in it to an equal degree. The
fact that I often watched and waited to see them
practising the art again, but without success, may
lend some colour to this. There was clinging some-
times, but not climbing."

In this competition, therefore, between the wren
and the tit as tree-creepers, the tit bears off the bell ;
but later I had a better opportunity of observing the
prowess of the latter bird, and, though I did not see
it descend, yet in ease and deftness, length of time
during which the part was assumed, and general
fidelity of the understudy to the original, it must,
I think, be pronounced the superior. It was early
on a cold, rainy, cheerless morning towards the end
of February, that I was so lucky as not to be in bed.
I say — "Have, this morning, watched closely, and
from quite near, a wren behaving just like a profes-
sional tree-creeper. It ascended the trunk of an alder,
quickly and easily, and sometimes to a considerable
height — twenty or thirty feet perhaps — beginning from
the roots, and then flew down to the roots or base
of the next one, and so on along a whole line of them.
Up the sloping roots, or anywhere at all horizontal,
it hopped along in the usual manner, but, when the
trunk became perpendicular, it crept or crawled, just

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240 BIRD WATCHING

like a true tree-creeper * I was, as I say, quite close,
and watched it most attentively. It certainly — as far
as good looking can settle it — did not assist itself
with the wings. They remained close against the
sides, or, if they moved at all, it was imperceptible
to my eyes (which, by the way, are non-pareils).
Nevertheless, at a later period — for I followed along
the trees — when I watched it at only a few paces off,
it as certainly appeared that it did use the wings,
advancing up the trunk by flutterings, but these were
so small and slight, and raised the bird so imper-
ceptibly from the surface of the trunk, that it had all
the while the appearance of creeping. As I was still
closer to the bird during the latter part of my watch-
ing, it may be thought that this alone represents the
actual fact ; but, for my part, I cannot help thinking
that my eyesight served me upon each occasion. If
so, then here is more 'richness/ from a Darwinian
point of view. The tits, it will be remembered,
differed individually, but in this wren there was a
personal variation. He could creep, in ascending,
without using his wings, and generally did so ; still
he sometimes broke into a little flutter, which, in a
more pronounced form, had been prevalent in his
youth. His father always did it in this way, and
there were very old wrens still living who only
flew up a trunk. But this was thought very old-
fashioned."

It will not be forgotten how this bird flew from the
point which it had reached on one tree, right down
to the roots of another, and ascended from these.

* I allude to the apparent motion. The tree-creeper itself, I believe,
really hops.

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 241

The tree-creeper, when it flits from tree to tree, gener-
ally does so in a downward direction. If trees were
of a uniform height, and if the bird usually ascended to
the top, or nearly to the top, of each one in succession,
one could see the rationale, or even the necessity, of
this practice, for the tree-creeper, does not — at least not
usually — descend the trunk. But in a wood, the top of
one tree may not represent half the height of another,
and, moreover, a tree will often be abandoned by the
bird when it has reached only a moderate height, or
is still quite near to the ground ; and it is not so easy
to see how, under these circumstances, the above-
mentioned habit should have arisen. But, now, if the
forerunners of the tree-creeper had been birds accus-
tomed to hop about on the ground, and to peer and
pry amongst the projecting roots of trees, and if they
had, from these, gradually ascended the trunk, getting
back to them at first quite soon, but making longer
and longer and more and more accustomed excursions,
then we can understand how this habit might have
become — as one may say — rooted, so as to continue
after there was no longer any particular advantage
in it Now, however, it is beginning to weaken. I
have on several occasions — which I duly noted down
at the time — seen a tree-creeper fly from one tree
to another, upon which it clung, in an upward direc-
tion. I have little doubt that what is now still a
habit will come to be a preference merely, and that,
in time, even this will cease to be discernible, and
the bird be guided simply by circumstances.

It is said that the tree-creeper never descends the
tree it is on, and, also, that it generally proceeds in
a spiral direction, by which, I suppose, is meant that

Q

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242 BIRD WATCHING

the line of its course winds round and around the
trunk of the tree. This last, however, has not been
quite my experience. I have watched the bird often
and carefully, and I should say that a true spiral
ascent by it is decidedly exceptional. Often one
has alighted upon the tall stem of a Scotch fir, on
the side away from me, and never come round into
view at all. On other occasions, after some time, I
have seen its tiny form outlined against the sky on
one or other side of the trunk, considerably higher
up, and then, again, it has disappeared back, or flown
to another tree. This can hardly be called a spiral
ascent, and I have seen no nearer approach to one.
Often, too, I have seen it mount quite perpendicularly
for a considerable distance. To me it appears that
the tree-creeper recollects, occasionally, that he ought
to ascend a tree spirally, and begins to do so, but
the next moment he forgets this tradition in his
family, and creeps individually. One might expect,
indeed, that insects or likely chinks for them would
act as so many deflections from the path of spiral
progress, which, as it seems likely, may have been
originally adopted for the same reason and upon the
same principle that a road is made to wind round a
mountain instead of being carried up the face of it
But how is it, then, that the wren and the blue-tit
ascend tree -trunks perpendicularly? for one would
have thought that the less au fait a bird was, the
more would the advantages of an easy gradient have
forced themselves upon it But these birds are still —
sometimes, at any rate — aided by their wings, so that
it would seem as though their tree-creeping had been
developed, or was being developed, as an adjunct to

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 243

tree-fluttering. Now, as it appears to me, though it
might be easier for a bird to creep up a tree by
going round it, it could more easily flutter up it per-
pendicularly,* in the way I have described, and, if
so, we can understand a bird that is only in process
of becoming a tree-creeper, commencing, as it were,
at the most advanced end. For it would first have
fluttered up perpendicularly, then have both crept
and fluttered so, and finally, when it could creep
without fluttering, it would do so at first on the old
fluttering lines. Then it might begin to adopt the
spiral method, but as the effort required became less
and less, and structural modification — as seen, for
example, in the shape and stiffness of the tail-feathers
of the tree-creeper — came to its assistance, this would
cease to be a help, and become a habit merely, and
when once a habit has lost its rationale, it is in the
way of being broken, even in good society. Thus
the perpendicular ascents of the tree-creeper may be
the final stage in a long process, and the return in
ease to what was before done in toil.

The tree-creeper is assisted in its climbing by the
stiff, pointed feathers of the tail, which act as a prop,
and also by its small size, which may possibly have
been partly gained by natural selection. The great
green woodpecker is possessed of the first of these
advantages, but not of the second, and it is, I believe,
the case that he much more adheres to the spiral
mode of ascent than does the tree-creeper, who, as it
seems to me, has almost discarded it It would be
interesting, therefore, to observe if the smaller spotted

* Or rather no particular difficulty would be experienced, so that the
shortest course would be the best one.

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a*4 BIRD WATCHING

woodpecker shows a greater tendency to deviate in this
direction ; but I have had no opportunity of doing this.

With regard to the other assertion — namely, that
the tree-creeper never descends the trunk of the
tree — this is at least not true without qualification, for
I have seen it do so backwards, with a curious and, as
it seemed to me, a quite special motion. It was quick
and sudden, carrying the bird an inch or so down the
trunk, when it ceased and was not repeated : a jerk, in
fact, but of a much more pronounced character, made
thus backwards, than any of the little forward jerks, in
a toned — one might almost sometimes say a gliding —
succession, of which the ordinary " creeping " consists.
The first time I saw this action (to dwell upon)
it constituted a perpendicular descent, but my eye
was not full on the bird at the moment, so that I
only observed it imperfectly. On the second occasion
I saw it quite plainly, and this time the bird jerked
itself sideways as well as downwards, stopping in
the same abrupt manner, though whether it made two
short quick jerks or only one, I could not be quite
sure of. I think it was two, but that only the last
one gave the jerky effect It would thus seem that
the tree-creeper might really progress in this way,
for some little while, if it wished to. The tail must
almost of necessity be raised, or the stiff, pointed
feathers would catch in the roughnesses of the bark ;
but, either from the quickness of the action, or the
slight extent to which it was lifted, I did not notice
this.

I have also seen the great green woodpecker make
exactly this same motion, downwards and back-
wards, on the trunk to which he was clinging, so

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 245

perhaps all true tree-creeping birds may be able to
descend in this fashion, should they wish it, though
to do so head first may be beyond the power, or rather
the habit, of most of them. This, certainly, I have
never seen the tree-creeper do, but I should not be
at all surprised were I to, some day, and in describ-
ing the habits of any bird, "never" — excepting in
extreme cases — is, in my opinion, a word that should
never be used.

The tit, however, though only an amateur tree-
creeper, does, as we have seen, descend the trunk
head downwards, showing, to this extent at least,
a superiority over a much greater master of the art.
But here we have the flutter, whether helped out
by the use of the feet or not, and we can imagine
that, as the bird became more and more a true
creeper, and used the wings less and less, he might
cease to descend, and only creep upwards. It must,
however, be remembered that all the tits are accus-
tomed to hang head downwards from twigs and
branches in an uncommon degree, so that a member
of the family, developing along these lines, might
find it easier to descend the trunk, or make greater
efforts to overcome the difficulty of doing so, than
a bird whose habits in this respect were less pro-
nounced. Tits perch more generally amongst the
higher branches of trees, and have no particular habit
of hopping about the ground or creeping over and
about the tangle of a tree's projecting roots, which
I have often watched wrens doing. Those which
I saw tree-creeping did not fly — or at any rate I did
not notice that they did — from the tree they were on,
so as to alight upon another at a lower elevation,

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246 BIRD WATCHING

but they were hardly systematic enough to let one
judge properly as to this. The wren, however,
both in this respect and in its general fafons (Tagir,
had a striking resemblance to the tree-creeper,
with which bird — if I read the systematic tangle (I
mean in print) aright — he is more closely related
than are the tits.

" Howsoever these things be " — I fear I have dwelt
too long upon them, but whole books are written upon
a war or even a battle — the little tree-creeper is a
very delightful bird to watch. Sometimes, on in-
clement winter days, one can come very near him,
very near indeed, and almost forget the cold, the
rain, the sleet, in his active busy little comfort To
see him then creeping like a feathered mouse over
some stunted tree-trunk, and insinuating his slender,
delicately -curved little bill into every chink and
crevice of the bark — so busy, so happy, so daintily
and innocently destructive! His head, which is as
the sentient handle to a very delicate instrument, is
moved with such science, such dentistry, that one
feels and appreciates each turn of it, and, by sym-
pathy, seems working oneself with a little probing
sickle that is seen even when invisible, as is the fine
wire or revolving horror in one's tooth, whilst sitting
in the dreadful chair. After watching him thus —
almost, sometimes, bending over him — I have broken
off some pieces of bark, to form an idea of what he
might be getting. A minute spider and a small
chrysalis or two would be revealed, but there were,
generally, many cocoon-webs of larger hybernating
spiders, whilst empty pupa shells and other such
debris suggested " pasture " sufficient to " lard " many

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 247

" rother's sides." And again I wonder why there are
not more professional tree-creepers, why countries so
rich and defenceless are not more invaded, in the
name of something or other high-sounding — evolution
will here serve the turn. But, in spite of this abund-
ance, the tree-creeper does not quite confine himself
to searching the bark of trees, for I have seen him,
on one occasion, dart suddenly out and catch a fly,
or other insect, in the air, returning immediately after-
wards to his tree again. To my surprise, I cannot
find this in my notes, but, as my memory is quite
clear upon the point, I mention it This is another
method of procuring food, which, as an occasional
practice, is widely disseminated amongst our smaller
birds, and here again one wonders why it has only
become a fixed habit with the fly-catcher. However,
I have seen a male chaffinch dash from the bank of
a river and catch may-flies in mid-stream, sometimes
a little and sometimes only just above the surface of
the water, several times in succession, so that, in this
case also, we see the possible beginnings of another
species-

I have forgotten to admire the tree-creeper — I
mean as a thing of beauty. To do so is a very
refined sensation, he is so neutral -tinted and half-
shady. One is an aesthete for the time, but the next
blue-tit dethrones one, for one has to admire him too,
and he, with his briskness and his Christian name of
Tom, is hardly aesthetic. The hardiness of these
little creatures — I am speaking here of the tits, but
to both it would apply — is wonderful — quite wonder-
ful. They are downy iron, soft little colour-flakes
of nature's very hardest material. It is now — for

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248 BIRD WATCHING v

I select a striking example — the most atrocious
weather, a howling wind, and sleet or sleety snow
that seems, as it falls, to thaw and freeze upon one's
hands, both at the same time. Later it becomes
almost a storm, with more snow. It is, indeed, a day
terrible to bird and beast in the general, as well as
to man, yet, through it all, these tiny little bits of
natural feather-work are feeding on the small Feb-
ruary buds of some elms that roar in the wind.
Wonderful it is to see them blown and swayed about,
with the snow-flakes whirling about them, as they
hang high up from the extremities of slender twigs,
playing their little life-part (as important in the sum
of things as Napoleon's) with absolute ease and well-
being, whilst one is almost frozen to look at them.
One must think of Shakespeare's lines about "the
wet shipboy in a night so rude," but what a poor
mollycoddle was he by comparison ! Later they will
sleep — these robust little feathered Ariels — to the
tempest's lullaby, above a world all snow, and with
frozen snow the whole way up the trunk of every un-
protected tree, on the windward side. Now it is
dinner, with appetite and entire comfort " in the cauld
blast."

What insects are in these tiny little new buds, or
are there insects in each one? — for these tits browse
from one to another and seem equally satisfied with
all. Yet it is authoritatively stated that they eat only
the insects in buds, and not the buds themselves. In
watching birds, however, as in other things, one
should be guided by a few simple rules, and one of
the most important of these is absolutely to ignore
all statements whatever, without the smallest regard

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 249

to authority. Everything should be new to you;
there should be no such thing as a fact till you have
discovered it Note down everything as a discovery,
and never mind who knew it — or knew that it was
not so — before. You may be wrong, of course. So
may the authority. But what makes authority in a
matter of observation ?

To me it certainly seemed that these tits ate the
elm-buds. At any rate, I have broken a spray off a
low bough where I had seen one feeding, and taken
it home. On examining it I found many a little bare
stalk where buds had been, which suggests that they
had been eaten and not merely pecked at I tried
several of these little buds (it was in February) myself,
and found them very nice and delicate. Later, in
April, I have noted down :

"The buds being now larger, I can see the birds
pecking and tugging at them more plainly, and now
and then a minute bud-leaf flutters to the ground. I
certainly think it is the buds themselves they are
attacking, for their own sake." As blue-tits feed at
the stacks — certainly not on insects — and eat cocoa-
nuts, Brazil-nuts, horse-chestnuts (I believe), meat,
and, in fact, almost everything, it would be strange
indeed if they neglected such a rich pasture-ground as
the buds of trees would yield them, or if they did not
care about them. On such a day as I have described,
one can understand them feeding hour after hour, and
making themselves rotund on the tiny little buds them-
selves, but hardly on insects contained in them.

The bullfinch, at any rate, is known to be a bud-
eater, and he may often be seen feeding on the elms,
in company with the blue-tit, and, to all appearance

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250 BIRD WATCHING

in just the same way. It is marvellous what slender
little twigs this bird will perch on, without their giving
way beneath his round burly form. Sometimes they
do give way, and then he swings about on them like
a ball at the end of a piece of string, nor does he get
off on to another one without a good deal of turmoil,
and some climbing, which cannot be called quite fairy-
like. In fact, he is awkward — but in the most graceful
manner imaginable. Harpagon, as we know, "avail
grace a tousser? and when a bird like the bullfinch
condescends, for a moment, to be awkward, his charm
is merely enhanced. Yet I cannot call him deft in
the procurement of buds, as the blue-tit is, with whom
he comes into competition, and whom he will drive
away. He does not hang nibbling at them head
downwards, as though to the manner born, and then
swing up again on a twig-trapeze. These things, if
not beyond him, are, at least, alien to his disposi-
tion, which is straightforward, and to his deportment,
which has a certain sobriety. His plan, therefore, is
to advance along the twig as far as it seems to him
advisable to go, and then, stretching forward and
elongating his neck, take a sharp bite at the bud,
which, with his powerful bill, secures it at once —
unless he fails. In the same way, he will stretch out
from the twig he is on, to secure the bud on another,
but this he does still more cautiously. At the blue-
tit, when feeding on the same tree, he will sometimes
make little dashes, driving him away. He has, in fact,
just done so (only in this instance it was the hen bird)
three times in succession. And now a fourth time
has this hen bullfinch made a dash at the blue-tit
The tit, each time, flutters away easily, and without

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 251

making any fuss about it. He is insulted, but he does
not wish to make a scene. Besides, he is smaller.

The catkins, too, are now hanging on the alders,
and on these also, or — if any one prefers it — on the
insects in them, the blue -tits feed. They, I think,
prefer the catkins, but I will not be sure.

Whenever practicable they grasp a catkin with one
claw, and the twig from which it hangs, and which
is their main support, with the other. Often, how-
ever, they grasp catkin and twig together with both
claws, and, standing thus, peck down upon them like
(" parva si magnis licet comparare ") a crow or hawk
upon some dead or living creature. Or, again, they
will hang head downwards from, and pecking at, a
bunch of the catkins, without any more substantial
support, or, with one claw grasping one twig, will,
with the other, hold a catkin belonging to another
twig up to the beak, like a parrot The claws of tits
are evidently of high value as seizers and holders, if
not quite as " pickers and stealers." They are much
more than mere rivets for fixing themselves on a perch.
To see one of these little birds, whilst straddled in this
way, pull the catkin towards it, is most interesting and
very pretty. The little legs are so thin and delicate
that one must be very close or get a very steady look
through the glasses, both to see, and, at the same time,
distinguish them from the twigs.

The coal-tit is even more parrot or, rather, squirrel-
like, and one can make out his actions better, for he
sits upright — one may almost say — on the ground
beneath a fir-tree, supporting himself with his tail and
one claw, whilst the other grasps a fir-cone at which
he pecks. At least I think it was a fir-cone, and I

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252 BIRD WATCHING

afterwards picked up several which were marked with
little pits round the base, where it had joined the
stalk, difficult to attribute to squirrels, and suggest-
ing that the birds had severed them in this way, and
not yet proceeded farther.

If the coal-tit does this, then it seems likely that
the great-tit does so also, in which case his extract-
ing the seeds from the larger cones of exotic firs
would be only what one might expect The coal-tit,
too, ascends the trunks of trees — Scotch fir-trees
especially — in the same fluttering way as does the
blue-tit, but perhaps still more deftly, in search of
insects, and often, as one watches him, a flake of the
bark that he has detached comes fluttering down.
The golden-crested wren may do the same, but I
have been more struck by the way in which this
little bird flies about amidst the pine-trees, from one
needle-bunch to another. He hangs from them head
downwards, but often, before clinging amongst them,
flutters just above or, sometimes, just below them.
In the latter case it seems as though the needles
were flowers, and that he was probing them with
his bill, whilst hanging in the air like a humming-
bird ; and this, amidst the dark pines and, especially,
on a gloomy winter's day, is odd to see. Often he
flits down from his pine-needles into the coarse, tufty
grass just bounding the plantation, bustles and fairy-
fusses there for a little, then is up again amongst his
needles, pecking the frost from them. For this is
what it looks like, that seems to be the meal he
is making, though, surely, it must really be some-
thing more substantial — if " meal " and " substantial "
are words that can be properly used in respect of a

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 253

being so tiny and delicate. However, he seems
busily examining the pine-needles, and this may be
either for minute insects upon them, or for the very
small buds which they bear. It is pleasant to watch
these little birds, and to hear their little needley note
of "tzee, tzee, tzee." Sometimes, however — but this
is more as spring comes on — they will fly excitedly
about amidst the trees and bushes, uttering quite a
loud, chattering note — far louder than one could have
expected from the size of the bird.

Returning to our blue-tits on their alder-tree ; they
have all flown into it — being a band of about twenty
— from a small hawthorn-tree a few paces off. Ex-
cepting for some lichen here and there on its branches,
this hawthorn -tree is bare, and the birds seem far
more occupied in preening themselves, and in giving
every now and again the little birdy wipe of the bill
first on one side and then another of a twig or bough,
than in any serious " guttling." For this they fly to
the alder, where, at once, they are feeding busily.
But I notice that every now and again some few of
them fly back into the hawthorn, where they sit, a
little, preening themselves as before, before returning.
In fact, they use the hawthorn-tree as their tiring-
room, whilst the alder is the great banqueting-hall.
Once or twice — I think it was twice-r-I saw one dart
at another and drive it from its particular catkin.
As they had a whole large tree to themselves, this,
I think, was pretty good.

But I have never seen the blue -tit behave so
prettily and airily with its catkins, as I have the
little willow-warbler in April. These little birds are
then constantly pursuing each other about through

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BIRD WATCHING

the trees, and especially the birch-trees, for which
they seem to have a decided preference, perhaps

Fairy Artillery

because they make a fairy setting for their fairy
selves. They affect its catkins, and one of the most

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BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 255

pleasing of things is to see them shoot through the
yet thin veil of green, give a flying peck at one, and
become immediately enveloped in a little yellow
cloud of the pollen. It looks, indeed, as if the bird
had shaken it from its own feathers, for its intimate
actions are too quick and small to be followed, and
the pollen is all around it But as the eye marks
the tiny explosion with delight, reason, quickly
following, as delightedly tells you the why of it,
and a plucked catkin illustrates.

This is all in the early fresh morning, when the
earth is like a dew-bath and all the influences so
lovely that one wonders how sin and sorrow can
have entered into such a world. It seems as though
nature must be at her fairest for so fairy a thing to
be done. I, at least, have not seen it take place
later, and I cannot help hoping that no one else
will.

But why do the little birds explode their catkins ?
Do their sharp eyes, each time, see an insect upon
them, or do they really enjoy the thing for its own
sake? I can see no reason why this latter should
not be the case, or, even if it is not so to any great
degree now, why it should not come to be so in time.
It must be exciting, surely, this sudden little puff of
yellow pollen-smoke, and then there is the fairy-like
beauty of it. There was much laughter, naturally,
when Darwin propounded the theory that birds
could admire, and when he instanced the bower-
birds, and, particularly, one that makes itself an
attractive little flower-garden, removing the blossoms
as soon as they fade, and replacing them with fresh
ones, it was held that such cases as these were decisive

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BIRD WATCHING

against his views. Gradually, however, it began to
be seen that they pointed rather in the opposite
direction, and now it is recognised that Darwin was
right This being so, it does not appear to me
absolutely necessary to suppose that when the little
wood-warbler flies at his catkin and produces one of
the prettiest little effects imaginable, he does so
always merely to get a fly or a gnat. There are
other possibilities, and I think that if our common
birds were minutely and patiently watched, we might
trace here and there in their actions the beginnings
of some of those more wonderful ones, which obtain
amongst birds far away.

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CHAPTER X
Watching Rooks

IN this chapter I will give a few scenes frorti rook
life, as I have watched it from late autumn to early
spring, linking them together by a remark now and
again of a general nature, or, possibly, some theory
which my observations may have suggested to me,
and seemed to illustrate. Were I to put into general
terms what I have jotted down at all times and in
all places, in the darkness before morning when the
rookery slept about me, in the dim dawn whilst it
woke into life, to stream forth, later, on wings of joy
and sound, in the long day by field and moor and
waste, and at evening again, or night, when the birds
swept home and sank to sleep amidst their own
sinking lullaby, I might make a smoother narrative,
but the picture would be gone. I think it better,
therefore, to make a preliminary general apology for
all roughnesses and repetitions, triviality of matter,
R *57

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258 BIRD WATCHING

minuteness of detail and so forth, in fact for all short-
comings, and then to go on in faith, not in myself,
indeed, but in the rooks, believing that they will
be interesting, however much I may stand in their
way.

When I speak of the rookery I do not mean the
trees where the birds build — unfortunately there are
none very near me — but those where they come to
roost during the autumn and winter — true rookeries
indeed if numbers count for anything. Here, their
chosen resting-place is a silent, lonely plantation of tall
funereal firs, standing shaggily tangled together, mourn-
ful and sombre, making, when the snow has fallen
but lightly — before they are covered — a blotch of very
ink upon the surrounding white. Who could think,
seeing them during the daytime, so sad and aban-
doned, so utterly still, tenanted only by a few silent-
creeping tits, or some squirrel, whose pertness amidst
their gloomy aisles and avenues seems almost an
affectation — who could think that each night they
were so clothed and mantled with life, that their
sadness was all covered up in joy, their silence made
a babel of sound? In every one of those dark,
swaying, sighing trees, there will be a very crowd
of black, noisy, joyous birds, and strange it is that
there should be more poetry in all this noise and
clamour and bustle than in their sad sombreness,
deeply as that speaks to one. The poetry of life is
beyond that of death, and when the rooks have gone
the dark plantation seems to want its soul. It is
Cupid and Psyche, but under dreary, northern skies.
Every evening the black, rushing wings come in love
and seem to kiss the dark branches, every morn-

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WATCHING ROOKS 259

ing they kiss and part, and, between whiles, the
poor longing grove stands lifeless, dreams and waits.
But how different would it seem if the rooks were
a crowd of men — nice, cheery, jovial, picturesque,
civilised men! Thank heaven, they are a crowd
of rooks !

I will now quote from my journal :

"Walking over some arable land that rises gently
into a slight hill, my attention is attracted by a num-
ber of rooks hanging in the air, just above a small
clump of elm - trees on its crest They keep alter-
nately rising and falling as they circle over the trees,
often perching amongst them, but soon gliding upwards
from them again. A very common action is for two to
hover, one above another, getting gradually quite close
together, when both sinking, one may almost say fall-
ing, rapidly, the upper pursues the under one, striking
at it — either in jest or earnest, but probably the former
— both with beak and claws. The downward plunge
would end in a long swoop, first to right or left, and
then again upwards, during which the two would be-
come separated and mingled with the general troop.
This action, more or less defined and perfect, was con-
tinued again and again, and there were generally one
or more pairs of birds engaged in it. The rest rose
and fell, many together, and obviously enjoying each
other's society, but without any special conjunction of
two or more in a joint manoeuvre. Their descents
were often of a rushing nature, and accompanied with
such sudden twists and turns as, sometimes, seemed to
amount to a complete somersault in the air — though as
to this I will not be too certain. The whole seemed
the outcome of pure enjoyment, and seen in the clear

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blue sky of this fine bright October morning — the last
one of the month — had a charming effect

" A fortnight later I happened to be near some woods
to which rooks were flying from all directions, to roost,
as I thought then, but afterwards I found it was only
one of their halting places. They were in countless
numbers, one great troop after another flying up from
far away over the country. The air was full of their
voices, which were of a great variety and modulation,
the ordinary harsh (though pleasant) 'caw* being
perhaps the least noticeable of all. Each troop flew
high, and, on coming within a certain distance of
the wood — a fair-sized field away — they suddenly
began to swoop down upon it in long sweeping
curves or slants, at the same time uttering a very
peculiar burring note, which, though much deeper
and essentially rook-like in tone, at once reminded
me of the well-known sound made by the nightjar.
Imagine a rook trying to 'burr* or 'churr' like a
nightjar, and doing it like a rook, and you have it
Whilst making these long downward-slanting swoops
the birds would often twist and turn in the air in
an astonishing manner, sometimes even, as it seemed
to me, turning right over as a peewit does, in fact,
exhibiting powers of flight far beyond what anyone
would imagine rooks to possess, who had only seen
or noticed them on ordinary occasions.

" Whilst these birds sweep down into the trees others
of them settle on the adjoining meadow-land, but they
do not descend upon it in the same way, but more
steadily, though still with many a twist and turn and
whirring, whizzing evolution. Neither do they utter
the strange burring note to which I have called atten-

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WATCHING ROOKS 261

tion, and which is a very striking sound. Starlings
are mingled with these latter birds, flying amongst
them, yet in their own bands, and alighting with them
on the meadow, where they continue to form an im-
perium in itnperio. Both they and the rooks descend
at one point, in a black or brown patch, but soon
spread out over the whole meadow, from which they
often rise up in a cloud, and, after flying about over
it for a little, come down upon it again. At last a
vast flock of starlings — numbering, I should think,
many thousands — flies up, and, being joined by all
those that were on the Held, the whole descend upon
the woods, through which they disseminate themselves.
Almost immediately afterwards, the rooks, as though
taking the starlings for their guide, rise too, and fly
all together to the woods. Now comes a troop of some
eighty rooks, and, shortly afterwards, another much
larger one — two or three hundred at the least — all
flying high, and going steadily onwards in one uniform
direction. They are all uttering a note which is diffi-
cult to describe, and does not at all resemble the
ordinary ' caw/ It has more the character of a chir-
rup, loud in proportion to the size of the bird, but still
a chirrup — or chirruppy. There is great flexibility in
the sound, which has a curious rise at the end. It
seems to express satisfaction and enjoyable social feel-
ing, and, if so, is very expressive. One feels, indeed,
that every note uttered by rooks is expressive, and if
one does not always quite know what it expresses that
is one's own fault, or, at any rate, not theirs.

"Twenty more now pass, then twenty-seven, and,
finally, another large body of some two to three hun-
dred — all flying in the same direction. It is the last

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262 BIRD WATCHING

flight, and, shortly afterwards, the loud harsh trumpet-
ing of pheasants is heard in all the woods and coverts
around, as they prepare to fly up into their own roost-
ing trees. This dove-tailing of two accustomed things
in the daily life of rooks and pheasants I have often
noticed, but it must be mere coincidence, for pheasants
vary in their hours of retirement, whilst the leisurely
homeward journeying of rooks, with pauses longer or
shorter at one place or another, occupies, in winter,
most of the afternoon.

"November 27th. — By the river, this afternoon, I
noticed two great assemblages of rooks down on the
meadow-land, whilst others, in large numbers, were
flying en route homewards. Of these, two would often
act in the way I have before described — that is to
say, whilst flying the one just over the other with very
little space between them, both would sink suddenly
and swiftly down, the upper following the under one,
and both keeping for some time the same relative
position. But besides this, two birds would often pur-
sue each other downwards in a different way, de-
scending with wide sideway sweeps through the air,
from one side to another, after the manner of a para-
chute, the wings being all the while outstretched and
motionless. In either case the pursuit was never per-
sisted in for long, and obviously it was no more than
a sport or an evolution requiring the concurrence of
two birds.

"Again, two will sweep along near together, at slightly
different altitudes, with the wings outspread in the same
way — that is to say, not flapping. Then first one and
afterwards the other gives a sharp wriggling twist,
seeming to lose its balance for a moment, rights itself

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WATCHING ROOKS 263

again, and continues to sweep on as before. Then
another wriggle, a further sweep, and so on."

Since seeing the curious manner in which ravens
roll over in the air — as described by me — I have
watched the aerial gambols, as one may almost call
them, of rooks more closely. There is a certain
place, not far from where I live, where these birds
make an aerial pause in their homeward flight; for,
whilst many are to be seen settled in some lofty trees
of a fine open park, others sail round and round in
wide circles and high in the air, over a wide expanse
of water in the midst of it After wheeling thus for
some time, first one and then another will descend
on spread wings, very swiftly, and with all sorts of
whizzes, half- turns or tumbles, and parachute -like
motions. When watched closely through the glasses,
however, it may be seen that, very often, these rushing
descents have their origin in an action, or, rather, an
attempted action, very much like that of the raven.
The idea of the latter bird is to roll over, so as to be
on its back in the air, and, by closing its wings, it is
able to achieve this without, or with hardly, any drop
from the elevation at which it has been flying. The
rooks seem to try to do this too, but instead of
closing the wings, they keep them spread, as open,
or almost so, as before. Consequently, instead of just
rolling over, their turn or roll to either side sends them
skimming sideways, down through the air, like a kite —
a paper one, I mean. Peewits close the wings and roll
over in much the same way as does the raven, but this
is generally either preceded, or followed, by a tremen-
dous drop through the air, with wings more or less
extended, so that the whole has quite a different effect

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264 BIRD WATCHING

"Of the two assemblies on the ground, one is in
perpetual motion, birds constantly rising — either
singly, in twos or threes, or in small parties — from
where they were, dying a little way just above the
heads of their fellows, and re-settling amongst them
again. Thus no individual bird, as it seems to me,
remains where it was for long, though those in the
air, at any given moment, form but a small minority,
compared with the main body on the ground.

"But the birds composing the other great assem-
blage keep their places, or, if some few rise to change
them, these are not enough to give character to the
whole, or even to attract attention. It is curious to
see two such great bodies of birds close to each other,
and on the same uniform pasture-land, yet behaving
so differently, the one so still, the other in such con-
stant activity.

" About 4 P.M. a great number of rooks rise from
some trees in a small covert near by, and fly towards
those on the ground. As they approach the first
great body — which is the lively one — the birds com-
posing it rise up, as with one accord, and fly, not to
meet them, as one might have expected, but in the
same direction as they are flying. So nicely timed,
however, is the movement, that the rising body
become, in a moment, the vanguard of the now com-
bined troop.

"All these birds then fly together to the other
assembly, and whilst about half of their number
sweep down to reinforce it, the other half continue
to fly on. The flying rooks, however, are not joined
by any of those on the ground. How curious it is
that, in the first instance, the one whole body of birds

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WATCHING ROOKS 265

does the same thing instantaneously, and as by a
common impulse, whilst in the second, half acts in
one way, and half in another, each appearing to have
no doubt or hesitation as to what it ought to do!
Again, how different is the conduct of the two field-
assemblages. One rises, as with one thought, to join
the flying birds. The other, as with one thought,
remains standing. Unless, in each case, some signal
of command has been given, then what a strange
community of feeling in opposite directions is here
shown. Where is the individuality that one would
expect, and what is the power that binds all the
units together?

"Are rooks led by an old and experienced bird?
— which is, I believe, the popular impression, as
embodied in a famous line of Tennyson, for which
one feels inclined to fight At first sight, the rising
of a whole body of rooks (or any other birds) simul-
taneously, either from the ground or a tree, might
seem to be most easily explained on the theory of
one bird, recognised as the chief of the band, having
in some manner — either by a cry or by its own flight
— given a signal, which was instantly obeyed by the
rest But how — in the case of rooks— can any one
note be heard by all amidst such a babel as there
often is, and how can every bird in a band of some
hundreds (or even some scores) have its eyes con-
stantly fixed on some particular one amongst them,
that ought, indeed, on ordinary physical and
mechanical principles, to be invisible to the greater
number? If, however, to meet this latter difficulty,
we suppose that only a certain number of birds, who
are in close proximity to the leader, see and obey the

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266 BIRD WATCHING

signal, and that these are followed by those nearest
to them, and so on till the whole are in motion, then
two other difficulties arise, neither of which seems
easy to get over. For, in the first place, the birds do
not, in many cases, appear to rise in this manner,
but, as in the instances here given, simultaneously,
or, at least, with a nearer approach to it than any
process of spreading, such as here supposed, would
seem to admit of; and secondly, it is difficult to
understand how, if this were the case, any bird — or,
at least, any few birds— could fly up without putting
all the others in motion. Yet, as I have mentioned,
birds in twos or threes, or in small parties, were con-
stantly rising and flying from one place to another
in the assemblage of which they formed a part, whilst
the vast majority remained where they were, on the
ground. This fact offers an equal or a still greater
difficulty, if, dismissing the idea of there being a
recognised leader, we suppose that any bird may, for
the moment, become one by taking the initiative
of flight, or otherwise. And even if we assume- that
any of these explanations is the correct one, in the
case of a whole body of rooks taking sudden flight,
or directing their flight to any particular place, or
with any special purpose, what are we to think when
half, or a certain number of the band does one thing,
and the other half another, each, apparently, with
equal spontaneity ? We are met here with the same
difficulties — and perhaps in a still higher degree — as
in the case of the flocks of small birds at the stacks
in winter.

"If rooks follow and obey a leader, one might
expect them to do so habitually, at least in their

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WATCHING ROOKS 267

more important matters. The flight out from the
roosting-trees in the morning, and the flight into
them again at night are — when it is not the breeding-
season — the two daily ' events ' of a rook's life. Here,
then, are two subjects for special observation.

" November 30/A. — At 3 P.M. I take up my position
on the edge of a little fir-plantation, a short distance
from where I watched yesterday and the last few days.
My object is to watch the flights of rooks as they
pass, and try to settle if each band has a recognised
leader or not Of course it is obvious that no one
bird can lead the various bands, for these come from
over a large tract of country, whilst even those that
seem most to make one general army, fly, often at
considerable intervals of time, and quite out of sight
of each other.

" A good many are already flying in the accustomed
direction, but singly, or wide apart. Each bird seems
to be entirely independent

"The first band now approaches. One rook is
much in advance for some distance. He then deviates,
and is passed by the greater number of the others, who
continue on their way without regard to him.

" Another great, irregular, straggling body in which
I can discern no sign whatever of leadership. Then
comes another, more compact A rook that at first
leads by a long interval is passed by first one and
then another, so that he becomes one of the general
body.

"A large band, flying very high. Two birds fly
nearly parallel, at some distance ahead.

"Two large bands, also very high. In each, one
bird is a good way ahead The apparent leader of

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268 BIRD WATCHING

the second band increases his distance, curves a good
deal out of the line originally pursued, nor do the
others alter their course in accordance.

" Two other bands. In each the leader theory seems
untenable. The birds have a broadly extended front,
and fly at different elevations. There is nothing that
suggests concerted movement, but, on the contrary,
great irregularity.

" In another band the apparent leader swoops down
to the ground, and, whilst only half-a-dozen or so
follow him, the main body proceeds on its way.

" Hitherto there has been a good deal of the familiar
cawing noise, but, now, a number of birds fly joyously
up, hang floating in the air, make twists and tumbles,
perform antics and evolutions, and descend upon the
ground with wide parachute-like swoops from side to
side, the wings outspread and without a flap. I am
first made aware of their approach by the complete
change of note. It is now the flexible, croodling,
upturned note — rising at the end, I mean — that I
know not how to describe, totally different from the
'caw/ nor do I hear a 'caw' from any of these
descending birds. It is the note of joy and sport,
of joyous sport in the air, of antics there as they
sweep joyously down through it, that I now hear.
The birds that caw are flying steadily and soberly
by. The 'caw* is the steady jog-trot note of the
day's daily toil and business — 'Jog on, jog on, the
footpath way.'

" Another great band, of such length and straggling
formation that the birds in the latter part of it could
not possibly see the leader if there were one — or
indeed, I should think, the vanguard at all The

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WATCHING ROOKS 269

first bird is passed by two others, then passes one
of these again, and remains the second as long as I
can see them.

"Another long flight that seems leaderless. With
the ' caw ' comes a note like ' chug-a, chug-a, chug-a '
(but the u more as in Spanish), and others that I
cannot transcribe. This flight goes on almost con-
tinuously — I mean without a distinct gap dividing it
from another band — for about ten minutes, when an-
other great multitude appears, flying at an immense
height and all abreast, as it were — that is to say,
a hundred or so in a long line of only a few birds
deep. This, perhaps, would be the formation best
adapted for observing and following one bird that
flew well in front, but I can see no such one. All
these birds are sailing calmly and serenely along,
giving only now and again an occasional stroke or
two with the wings. Now comes a further great
assembly, in loose order, all flying in the same direc-
tion. A characteristic of these large flights of rooks
is that their van will often pause in the air and
then wheel back, circling out to either side. The
rearguard is thus checked in its advance, the birds
of either section streaming through each other, till
the whole body, after circling and hanging in the
air for a little, like a black eddying snowstorm (all
at a great height), wend on again in the same direc-
tion, towards their distant roosting-place. With the
air full of the voice of the birds, there is no caw —
only the flexible, croodling, chirruppy note that has
a good deal of music in it, as well as of expression.
This note, I think, is what I have put down as
1 chug-a, chug-a, chug-a.'

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270 BIRD WATCHING

" There is now a continuous straggling stream, form-
ing ever so many little troops. The first bird of one
troop tends to become the last of the one preceding
it, and the last one the leader of the troop following.
Then come numbers, dying in a very irregular and
widely disseminated formation, yet together in a
certain sense. There is much of rising and sinking
and again floating upwards, of twists and twirls
and sudden, dashing swoops downwards, from side
to side, like the car of a falling balloon ; two birds
often pursuing each other in this way.

"And now come two great bands, one flying all
abreast, as before described, the other forming a great,
irregular, quasi-circular rook-storm. Leadership in
the latter case would be an impossibility; in the
former I see no sign of it All these birds, though
at a fair height, are flapping steadily along in the
usual prosaical manner ; through them, and far above
— at a very great height indeed, the highest I have
yet seen, and far beyond anything I should have
imagined — I see another band gliding smoothly,
majestically on, with scarce an occasional stroke of
the eagle-spread pinions. The one black band of
birds seen through the others, far, far above them,
has a curious, an inspiring effect"

Rooks, when in continued progress, either fly with
a constant, steady flapping of the wings, in a some-
what laboured way, though often fairly fast, or they
sail along with wings outspread, and flapping only
from time to time — this last, however, only when
they are at a considerable height A crowd of rooks,
indeed, in the higher regions of air present a very
different appearance to what they do when they fly

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WATCHING ROOKS 271

about the fields, even though at a fair height above
the trees ; their powers of flight in each case seem
of a very different kind. They can also soar to
some extent, rising higher and higher on outspread
wings as they sweep round and round in irregular
circles — like gulls, but far less perfectly, and they
have to flap the wings more often. Add to this
their downward-rushing swoops, their twists, turns,
tumbles, zig-zaggings, and all manner of erratic aerial
evolutions, and it must be conceded that the powers
of flight which they possess are beyond those with
which we generally associate them in our mind.

Seen thus, trooping homewards, in all their many
moods and veins,

"Whether they take Cervantes' serious air,
Or laugh and shake in Rabelais 1 easy-chair,"

their flight, combined with their multitude, is full of
effects. To-day their widely extended bands were
often, like so many black snowstorms filling a great
part of the sky. But at no time did I see anything
resembling leadership. "The many wintered crow
that leads the clanging rookery home" is — a lovely
line. On no other occasion could I make out that
rooks obeyed or followed any recognised leader, and
I came to a similar negative conclusion in regard to
the question of their employment of sentinels. It
is asserted in various works — for instance, in the
latest edition of Chambers's " Encyclopedia " — that
they do post sentinels. I will give two instances of
their not doing so— as I concluded — and my experi-
ence was the same on other occasions, which I did
not think it worth while to note.

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272 BIRD WATCHING

" December 22nd. — To-day, I saw a number of rooks
blackening a heap of straw by a stack, whilst some
were on the stack itself. Many were sitting in some
elms near about, but they did not appear to me to be
acting the part of sentinels. When I tried to get up
to the hedge in order to watch the rooks at the stack,
through it, they flew off, a good deal later than their
friends in the trees must have seen me, and not till I was
quite near. If these had really been sentinels, they
should have warned the rest, either the instant they
saw me, or at any rate, when I was obviously approach-
ing, but this they did not do. They were, therefore,
either not sentinels or inefficient ones." The second
case, however, is more conclusive.

"January Zth. — To-day, on my way down to the
roosting-place, I pass a number of rooks feeding in a
field, and not far from the road. They are all more
or less together, there are no outposts, though of
course there is, of necessity, an outer edge to the flock.
But neither on the hedge or in any of the trees near,
are there any birds to be seen. On the other side of
the field, however, and a very considerable way off, a
few are sitting in some trees. It hardly seems possible
that these can act the part of sentinels at sucfc a
distance, and even if they were much nearer, the feed-
ing rooks would have either to be looking at them, to
see when they flew, or else, the alarm must be given by
a very loud warning note. Bearing this in mind, I
alight from my cycle, and walk along the road. The
rooks, without any dependence on sentinels far or near,
note the fact, bear a wary eye, but continue feeding.
I then stop— always an alarming measure with birds.
The feeding rooks fly off to a safer distance, the ones

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WATCHING ROOKS 273

in the trees remain there as silent as ever, nor is there
any special note uttered by any one bird of the flock,
nor anything else whatever to suggest that any par-
ticular bird or bifds is acting the part of sentinel."
There is certainly no sentinel in this case, and in
matters directly affecting their safety one might
suppose that rooks, as well as other birds and beasts,
would act in a uniform manner. This, however, we
can clearly see, that when there happen to be trees,
near where they are feeding, some of them will usually,
and quite naturally, be perched in them, and average
human observation and inference may have done the
rest

Rooks, I am inclined to think, are not birds that
give their conscience into keeping. Each one of them
is his own sentinel.

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CHAPTER XI
Watching Rooks — continued

CONTINUING my journal, I will now give extracts
which illustrate, principally, the return home of the
rooks at night and their flying forth in the morning —
those two aspects of their daily winter life which are
the most full, perhaps, both of interest and of poetry.

11 December gth. — This afternoon at about 3.30 I find
vast numbers of rooks gathered together on a wide
sweep of land, close to their roosting-place.

"Even now — and they are being constantly rein-
forced — they must amount to very many thousands,
and cover several acres, in some parts standing thickly
together, in others being more spread out. There is
an extraordinary babble of sound, a chattering note
and the flexible, croodling one being conspicuous.
Combats are frequent — any two birds seem ready to
enter into one at any moment — and they commence
either, apparently, by sudden mutual desire, or else by
one bird fixing a quarrel on another, which he does by
walking aggressively up to him and daring him, so to
speak. In fighting they stand front to front, and then

374

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WATCHING ROOKS 275

spring up at each other — like pheasants, but grappling
and pecking in the air as do blackbirds and small birds
generally. Sometimes one bird will be worsted in the
tussle, and you instantly see it on its back, striking up
with claws and beak at the other, who now bestrides it.
It is easier to see this result than to be sure as to the
process by which it is arrived at — whether, for instance,
the overmatched bird falls, willy-nilly, on its back, or
purposely throws itself into that position, so as to
strike up like a hawk or owl. I think that this last
may sometimes be the case, from the very accustomed
way in which rooks fight under such circumstances ;
but, no doubt, it would only be done as a last resource.
The rooks, however, do not seem vindictive, and their
quarrels, though spirited, are usually soon over. They
may end either by the weaker or the less acharni bird
retiring, in which case the pursuit is not very sustained
or vigorous, or else by both birds, after a short and not
very rancorous bout, pausing, appearing to wonder
what they could have been thinking about, and so
walking away with mutual indifference, real or
assumed. Often one bird will decline the combat,
and in this case, as far as I can see, it is not molested
by the challenger, however bullying and aggressive
this one's manner may have been. A rook coming
up to another with the curious sideway swing of
the body and a general manner which seems to
indicate that he thinks himself the stronger of the
two, looks a true bully.

"One rook has just found something, and, whilst
standing with it in his bill, another comes forward
to dispute it with him, but the attack is half-hearted,
and seems more like a mere matter of form. After-

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276 BIRD WATCHING

wards, when the same bird has the morsel on the
ground in good pick-axeing position, a second rook
advances upon him with a quick, sideway hop, looking
cunning, sardonic, diabolic, and much for which words
seem totally wanting. But this attack, though swift
and vigorous, is not more successful than the former
one. The lucky rook gets off with his booty, and
has soon swallowed it Amongst rooks, the finding
of anything by any one of them is a recognised cause
of attack by any other. This is taken as a matter of
course by the bird attacked, and if he holds (and
swallows) his own, which, as he has a clear advantage,
he generally does, no resentment is manifested by
him — there is not even a slight coolness after the
incident is over. If, however, the attack should be
successful, then it is very different The annoyance
is too great for the robbed bird, and he becomes very
warm indeed. He makes persistent violent rushes
after the robber, is most pertinacious, and clearly
shows that kind of exasperation which would be felt
by a man under similar circumstances. It seems not
so much his own loss, as the success and triumphant
bearing of the other bird, that upsets him. He has
failed where he ought to have been successful, and of
this he seems conscious.

"When one rook makes his spring into the air
at another, this one will sometimes duck down in-
stead of also springing. The springer, then, like
'vaulting ambition,' 'o'erleaps himself and falls on
the other side.' I have just seen this. The rook
that bobbed seemed to have scored a point, and
to know it, which the other one confessed shame-
facedly — no, indescribably, a 'rook cannot look shame-

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WATCHING ROOKS 277

faced. The advantage was not followed up by the
successful bird, but the combat ceased, I think, in
consequence.

" I now notice a hare a little on the outside of the
phalanx of rooks, at the part of it nearest to myself.
All at once he makes a little run towards them as if
charging them, and sits down, making one of their
first line, and almost, as it seems, touching two or
three. After sitting here for some while the hare
makes another little run, this time right in amongst,
the rooks, several of which he puts up as though on
purpose — each of the birds giving a little jump into
the air with raised wings, and coming down again.
He then sits down as before, but this time all amongst
them. This he repeats several times, making little
erratic gallops through the black crowd, in curves to
one side and another, and appearing to enjoy the
fun of causing rook after rook to jump up from
the ground. Half-a-dozen times he runs right at a
rook that he might easily have avoided, and sits
down amongst them two or three times, again. At
last, in a final gallop, he pierces the squadron and
continues on, over the land. This certainly appeared
to me to show a sense of fun, if not of humour, on
the hare's part, and as — with a few noted exceptions
— it is the rarest thing to see one species of animal
take any notice of another, I was proportionately
interested.

"It is now half-past four, and for about an hour the
great assemblage has been increased by a perpetual
stream of rooks, that sail up and descend into it with
joyous wheels and sweeps. For some time, too, flocks
of the birds have been flying from the ground into

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278 BIRD WATCHING

trees near. They fly by relays, and from the farthest
part of the troop — that is to say, from that part which
is farthest distant from the woods where they are to
roost First one band of birds and then another rises
from the outer extremity, flies over the rest, ascending
gradually, and wings its way to the trees. By these
successive flights the assemblage is a good deal
shrunk, and does not cover nearly so much ground,
when the remainder — still an enormous number — rise
Jike a black snowdrift whirled by the wind into the
air, and circle in a dark cloud, now hardly visible in
the darkening sky, above the roosting-trees, with a
wonderful babel of cries and noise of wings.

"At 4.40 this deep musical sound of innumerable
crying, cawing, clamouring throats is still continuing,
and once, I think, the birds rise from the trees into
which they have sunk, and circle round them again.
Now they are in the trees once more, but the lovely
cawing murmur — the hum, as though rooks were
rooky bees — still goes on.

" 4.47. — It is sinking now. Much more subdued and
slumberous, deliciously soothing, a rook lullaby.

"December nth. — A stern winter's day, the earth
lightly snow - covered, but bright and fine in the
morning. At 3 P.M. I am where the rooks roost, a
plantation of fir-trees — larches — dark, gloomy and
sombre, with a path, piercing them like a shaft of
light, over -arched with their boughs, silvered now
with light snow-wreaths. Just in this gloomy patch
they sleep, but with a light belt of smaller firs opposite,
or with adjoining woods of oak and beech they will
have nothing to do, leaving these latter to the wood-
pigeons.

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280 BIRD WATCHING

"At 4.30 I leave the woods and find the rook
gathered in the same place as yesterday, but in far
less numbers. Shortly, a large band flies up and
swoops down with all sorts of turns and twists, and
turns right over in the air — a striking sight, the air
full of the rushing sound of their wings — a bird-
storm, a black descending whirlwind. At 4.35 the
rooks all fly from the ground into a small clump
of fir-trees near. Great numbers of other ones
are flying up and settling in a plantation of
small firs, fringing another part of the field, quite
filling it The snow seems to drive them from
the ground, their conclave to-day must be held in
the trees.

" They are gathering, now, from all parts, filling the
trees round about the ploughed land — now all white —
flying in flocks about them, then descending into them
again.

" Still coming and coming out of the sunset, specks
growing into birds. The stern, snow-covered land-
scape, the red glow of the sunset, and the black,
labouring pinions against it make a fine winter
scene.

"4.37. — Back at the larches, and only just in time
to stand concealed within them, before the rooks are
there. All seem coming, a black, flying multitude.
They have reached the larches and fly about over
them in wide, sedate circles, coming in relays, as
last night Joyous voices — innumerable multitudes —
a torrent of wings ! All in a broad, rapid, streaming
flight to the larches. They sweep, dash, circle and
eddy over them, black flashes in the deepening gloom.
They sweep into them, and the snow, swept by their

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WATCHING ROOKS 281

Wings, falls in a drizzle from the branches. Joyous,
excited cries, ' chu, chu, chac, chac.' The whole dark
grove is a cry, a music. Still other bands, they burden
the air. Band after band — now with a pause between
each. They fly swiftly and steadily up, at a not much
greater height than the trees, not descending into
them out of the sky.

"A longer pause, followed by another hurrying
band And now the moon is shining through the
larches, and the black, ceaseless pinions go hurrying
across its face. Groans, moans, shrieks almost, yells
amongst the larches, all mingled and blending — but
sinking now. A marvellous medley, a wonderful
hoarse harmony! Here are shoutings of triumph,
chatterings of joy, deep trills of contentment, hoarse
yells of derision, deep guttural indignations, moanings,
groanings, tauntings, remonstrances, clicks, squeaks,
sobs, cachinnations, and the whole a most musical
murmur. Loud, but a murmur, a wild, noisy,
clamorous murmur; but sinking now, softening — a
lullaby.

4 1 never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.'"

When the rooks sweep down, thus, into their
roosting-trees they frequently do so with a peculiar
whirring or whizzing noise of the wings, but although
this sound is in perfect consonance with the motion
which it accompanies — insomuch that one has to use
the same words to describe each — yet it does not
seem to be produced by it At least, it bears no
relation to the height from which the birds swoop,
nor — as would seem to follow from this — with the

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282 BIRD WATCHING

impetus of the descent It may be a matter of
impetus, but to me it has often seemed more as though
the sound gave the idea of impetus, or added to it,
and that the sweeps were, sometimes, just as impetuous,
or even more so, when made without it As I ob-
served, the birds flew to their trees at a very moderate
height — not very much, indeed, above the trees them-
selves — and, whilst many made the whizzing sound,
the great majority swooped down without it It
seems, therefore, to be a special sound produced by
the rooks at pleasure, and always accompanying an
excited frame of mind. First one bird and then
another gets excited, and dashes suddenly down with
the whirring or whizzing noise, so that, as the sound
is not vocal, and is only heard upon such occasions,
it has all the appearance of being caused by the quick,
sudden motions of the wings. But it is possible that
some particular way of holding the quill-feathers of
the wing or even tail is required to produce it, in
combination with the general movements, and this
would account for its being sometimes heard and
sometimes not heard, when these latter are identical.*
The curious burring note is likewise, but far less fre-
quently, an accompaniment of these wild excited
sweepings, and this is most often the case when they
are from a considerable height Here, again, the note
bears a clear relation to the bird's mental state, so
that it would appear that the degrees of pleasurable
excitement cannot be estimated by the motions alone.

* With regard to the above, however, I am now no longer so sure.
Je trie' en doute. When the rooks descend from a height, the sound
made is often most remarkable, being that of a mighty rushing wind
filling the air.

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WATCHING ROOKS 283

The "burr," in my opinion, when well and loudly
uttered — for here, again, there is much variety — marks
the maximum of a rook's content, at any rate in a
certain direction.

" December i$th. — At 7 A.M. I am at the point of the
road nearest to the rookery, and I hear the sweet
jangle, 'the musical confusion/ already beginning.
Not much, however — subdued and occasional — in-
fluenced, perhaps, by the heavy morning mist that
hangs over trees and earth. After a time I walk to
an oak just outside the plantation, and sit listening to
the rising hubbub — now rising, now falling. A sad,
mist-hung morning, the earth lightly snow-decked ;
raw and chill, but not so frostily, bitingly cold as
yesterday and before. The general intonation of the
rook voice is pleasing and musical — how much more
so than the roar of an at-home as the door is flung
open, even though one has not to go through that
door ! There is very great modulation and flexibility
— more expression, more of a real voice than other
birds. One feels that beings producing such sounds
must be intelligent and have amiable qualities. One
of the prettiest babbles in nature !

"One catches c qnook, qnook/ c chuggerrer/ 'choo-
00-00/ At intervals the single, sudden squawk, or
continued trumpeting, of a pheasant, breaks abruptly
into the sea of sound, then mingles with it. Every
now and again, too, there is a sudden increase of
sound, which again sinks.

"At 7.50 the rooks are still in bed, but a pheasant
— a fine cavalier — comes running towards me over
the snow. He makes a long and very fast run for
some fifty yards or so, then stops and draws himself

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284 BIRD WATCHING

bolt upright, seeming to stand on tip-toe. More than
upright he is-«*bent back, trying to look like a soldier,
but obliged to be graceful and elegant Standing thus,
he seems on the very point of trumpeting, yet does
not, and then runs on again. He repeats this, several
times, each time thinking of trumpeting, but desisting
and going on.

"At 7.58 the flight out commences. Two or three
birds are a little in front, none very prominently so,
and others are catching them up and seem just on
the point of passing them when they are lost to me
in the mist There is nothing suggesting a leader.
If they were led it was not by one of themselves, for
with them and in their very fore-front two little birds
were flying, who passed with them out of sight They
were tits, I think, and in another flight out, after one
of the pauses — for the rooks fly out by relays, like
the starlings — I noticed one other, all three, I believe,
being parus c&ruleus. There are quite a number of
tits in the plantation and woods adjoining, but why
just three should leave it and go flying with the rooks
through the mist, over the open country, if not for
the mere joy and fun of the tiling, I know not All
at once a number of the out-flying birds turn in their #
flight, and swoop back, with a great rush of wings,
to the plantation. Afterwards, at intervals, there are
other such returns, little bands of the birds seeming to
say, ' Oh, let's go back to bed. It's much nicer/ and
doing so. This, too, is exactly what the starlings do.
The birds, as they fly, are all vociferous, and the air is
laden with a pleasant burden of 'chug-chow, chug-
chow, chug-chow. Chugger-chugger-chow. How-chow,
how-chow.' The rooks talk a kind of Chinese.

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WATCHING ROOKS 285

" At 8.20 the principal flight is over, but still there
is a stream of birds issuing out, and most of these are
now going down on to the land. All at once, these —
that is to say, all the rooks on the ground — rise and
fly to the trees, the birds who have been sitting in
them join them in the air, they all fly about together
over the trees, and then go off in two or more bodies,
and in different directions. There has been no sign
of a leader, or of leadership, in any of the flights
out, or in any of the birds' actions.

"At 8.45, when no more rooks are to be seen,
either flying or on the ground, I walk through the
larches, and put up a good many birds who have
remained sitting in them, instead of going out with
the rest I, then, walk all round the plantation, and
find numbers of rooks sitting in the beech-trees that
edge it on one side. Though the numbers seem
small, after watching the innumerable flights out,
they may yet amount to some hundreds. Thus,
some small bodies of birds, and even some individuals,
have not been influenced by the action of the vast
majority, but have sat still whilst the rest flew forth
— unless, indeed, all of them have first flown out, and
then back again ; but this I do not think is the case.
Two great leading principles seem to govern all the
actions of rooks — independence and interdependence.
All are influenced by all, yet all can, on any and
every occasion, withstand that influence, and think
and act for themselves.

"Sometimes the sweepsback of the birds into the
trees are very curious, seeming to indicate some
unknown force at work. There is a sort of com-
motion — a turmoil of some sort— causing a cessation

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286 BIRD WATCHING

of the regular, orderly flight, the voice varies, there
is a rush of wings, and out of this trouble, as it were,
the backward swoop is born. Then the wavering
stream — or rather a certain wavering eddy in it —
flies on, and again the voice becomes the musical
'har-char, har-char' (a better rendering than 'how-
chow'), which characterises the flight out

"It is as though a sudden surge of thought said
4 Back I ' and swept some back, but a deeper,
stronger surge said c On ! ' and on the greater
number streamed

"Again, the stream of flight will sometimes be
interrupted by a sort of sweeping or drifting together
of a number of the birds, making an eddy in it, as
it were — an interruption and perturbation in the
current, difficult to describe, and over before one can
fix the proper words to it ; but indicating some sort
of emotion in the birds, a rush of feeling of some
kind, something tiresome to note, but which ought
to be noted. Once, too, I have seen a single rook
flying straight back against the general current of
the stream, meeting and passing all the rest on his
way to the trees, seeming the very emblem of a
fixed intent

" These curious, pausing, and hesitating movements,
in which an idea that seems at first vague becomes,
all at once, definite, seem to me to have their origin
in what may be termed collective thinking — for this
gives a better idea of the appearance of the thing
than does the term thought-transference, though that
may more correctly indicate the process. The birds
do not appear to be influenced by the actions — the
external signs of thought — of each other, but numbers

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WATCHING ROOKS 287

of them seem similarly influenced at or about the
same moment of time. In fact, they often act as
though an actual wind had swept them in this or
that direction — when this cannot have been the case,
I hasten to add.

"February 10th. — A hard black frost, bitterly, bit-
ingly cold. At 5.30 A.M. I steal into the dark
plantation, and silently take my place at the foot of
one of the tall, sighing trees. Softly as I try to move,
I disturb some of the sleeping birds, who make heavy
plunges amongst the trees, or beat about, for a little,
through 'the palpable obscure* above them. But,
leaning against the trunk, I am now rock-still, and
soon they settle down again, though 'talking' —
some nervous inquiry — continues a little, breaking
out first here and then there, around where I sit I
soon notice, however, that these outbursts have no
relation to my whereabouts, but take place over the
whole plantation, and I come to the conclusion that
they have nothing to do with the late disturbance,
which is now, evidently, forgotten. The night, in fact,
is passing, and the rooks are beginning to be rooks.
Such noises in the utter darkness, amidst the shroud-
black firs, sound ghostly, and may, perhaps, have
given rise to the idea of the night-raven. In the
winter, it must be remembered, it is night, practically,
for some time after the peasantry of any country are
up and about ; nor can I conceive of any sounds more
calculated to give rise to superstitious ideas than
some of those I hear about me. In the real night,
too, a belated peasant might easily get a note or
two from some awakening rook, and, both by virtue
of time and place, and the actual quality of the

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288 BIRD WATCHING

sound — as I can testify — it would sound very different
to what he was accustomed to in the daytime. It is
probable that, in a country where ravens were known,
and inspired those superstitious feelings which they
always have inspired, such sounds, issuing out of the
darkness, would be ascribed to them, rather than to
the homely rook ; and here we should have the night-
raven — a bird 'frequently met with in fiction, but,
apparently, nowhere else.' Possibly, however, the
raven itself may sometimes utter its boding croak
through the darkness, and ravens have been, and, in
some parts, still are, numerous.

"Gradually the plantation becomes quite a wonderful
study of sounds, there being an extraordinary variety,
and some of them most remarkable. One, that seems
deep down in the throat, suggests castanets being
played there, but castanets of a very liquid kind,
water-castanets, if such there could be, but, if not, it
gives the idea. This curious sound is only uttered
occasionally by some particular rook, and it recalls
— perhaps is — the well-known burring note that I
have heard under such different circumstances. If
so, it can only be as a recollection that the bird
utters it I have not the space to reason this, but,
assuming it to be so, may we not see, here, one of
the alleys leading up to language ? A certain sound
is uttered during the doing of a certain thing. It
becomes associated in the mind with that thing, with
the doing of it, and with the state of mind under the
influence of which it is done. At first, perhaps, un-
consciously, then consciously, it is uttered when such
action is recalled, and the utterance recalls it, also,
to the mind of whoever hears. Here, then, is a

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WATCHING ROOKS 289

certain well - understood sound conveying a certain
idea or ideas — as, first, 'burr/ a particular kind of
joyous flight : then, ' burr,' something as joyous as
such flight, and so, joy: and lastly, r burr,' the actual
joyous flying, the root, therefore, of the verb 'burr/
to fly joyously, and, so, to fly. Darwin supposes
language to owe its origin 'to the imitation and
modification of various natural sounds, the voices of
other animals and man's own instinctive cries, aided
by signs and gestures.' To repeat a certain sound,
that had been at first the mere mechanical adjunct
of a certain act or state, when one recalled that act
or state, would be, as it seems to me, an extremely
early — perhaps the earliest — step, passing imperceptibly
from feeling into thought, and leading on to imitation.
Such speculations may be permitted one, in a dark
fir - plantation, surrounded by rooks and waiting for
the morning.

"One thing, however, I record as a fact, which appears
to me somewhat curious. Though the plantation is
continuous, without any break other than the narrow
path that runs through its centre, and though it is
simply crowded with rooks, every tree holding a great
many, yet I notice that an outbreak of sound in any
particular part of it does not spread over the whole,
as one might have supposed that it would, but dies
gradually out, as it radiates from the point where it
arose. Thus, there are zones of sound, isolated from
each other by intervening areas of silence. Just at
this moment, after I have sat, for some time, silent,
and all alarm has subsided, there is a great clamorous
outburst some little way off. It must have some
special cause which I cannot divine, but this com-
T

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290 BIRD WATCHING

motion does not, any more than the lesser ones,
spread itself through the packed community, but is
strictly isolated. How strange this seems! A
parliament (though I heard no nonsense talked) of
lively, eminently gregarious birds, all of which are
noisy at one time or another, and from the thick of
them a storm of clamour bursts : would not one
think that the birds sitting cheek by jowl with the
stormers would storm too, and so 'pass it on'?
Why should there be a periphery, and what should
limit the chorus except the bound of the plantation
itself? Do crowds shout in patches? That the
clamour should cease, after a time, is, of course, natural,
but why, though it died along the road by which it
travelled, should it not keep travelling on, through
all the black, serried ranks ? If rooks were influenced
only by the outward manifestations of each other's
emotions, one might, surely, expect this. But now,
if they were influenced more by the thought itself,
rapidly transmitted from one to another of them, then,
whenever this factor ceased, for whatever reason, to
act, the birds beyond the limits of its action might be
unaffected by the cries of those who had felt its in-
fluence, for they would have been accustomed to look
for a sign from within, and not from without They
might then hear, on some occasions, without being
impelled^ though on other occasions they might choose,
to join. It may be difficult to realise such a psychical
state, but that does not, of itself, make the state im-
possible. Its possibility would depend upon the
reality or not of collective thinking, or thought-trans-
ference, and observation is (or should be) our only
means of deciding as to this.

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WATCHING ROOKS 291

" As light struggles out of the darkness, the silence
is broken more and more frequently, at some point
or other of the plantation, so that the sound is dis-
seminated over a larger and larger space, till, for some
little while before the flight, the whole rookery seems
to be talking at one and the same time. In reality,
however, there is a constant cessation and renewal on
the part of each individual bird.

"At 6.30 the sounds take a deeper and more em-
phatic tone. There is more solemnity, more meaning,
and the meaning grows plainer and plainer as the
asseveration becomes more and more emphatic, that
'it is, yes is, is really, positively is, is, is, is, is the
morning. 1

"At 6.35 there is the light, joyous 'chug-a, chug-a,
chug-a,' besides which one catches — if one has a good
ear — 'hook, chook, — hook, took — hook-a-hoo-loo —
chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, — polyglot,
polyglot.'

"Then there is a question — a serious and solemnly
propounded question — 'Quow-yow?' The answer —
from another rook — is immediate and undoubted —
' Yow-quow.'

" There are sounds which just miss being articulate
and just evade one's efforts to write them down. It is
significant that I have to use the word 'talking' to
describe the rook's utterances. It is the one word ;
another would sound forced and strained.

"Throughout the babel, there is a tendency for it
to sink and rise in sudden accentuations and diminish-
ments. Now there is a diminishment, and a bird
in the tree next to mine gives a sleepy stretch out
of one wing, which has all the appearance of a yawn.

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292 BIRD WATCHING

But I see no other bird yawning, nor do I notice
any toilette, any preening of the feathers.

" Now, at close on 7, the flight out is preceded by a
flight of the birds inside the plantation, from one tree
to another, and this passes, gradually, into the full
forth-streaming. Just above the trees, now, they pass
in endless flakes of a black and living snowstorm.
Their flight is swift, hurrying, joyous. They flap,
but there are, often, long sweeps on outspread wings,
between the flaps. And ever, as they fly, they greet
the cold, stern morning with their joy-song of ' chow-
how, a-chuck, a-chuck, a-chuck, a-chuck, a-chuck-a.'

" Nearly a month later, a smaller, but still numerous,
body of the birds had chosen a new roosting-place — a
clump of Scotch firs on a lonely heath, which had stood
vacant all the winter, a point interesting in itself, but
which — for the old reason — I am unable to discuss.

"March 4th. — I got to the plantation towards the
end of the afternoon, and resolved to wait there, in
order to see wood-pigeons fly into it in the evening.
Not many came, but at six o'clock I saw what I
thought was a large band of them fly into an oak-tree
which I had noticed just outside the plantation, where
they remained for a minute or two. They then flew
on to the plantation, sweeping over it once or twice
before settling, and I saw that they were rooks. As
will be seen from this, they had hitherto been silent
When they had settled in the trees there was some
talking, but strangely little, I thought, for rooks, and
very soon afterwards there was hardly a sound. They
remained thus, for some little time. All at once, with
extraordinary suddenness, with a sound of wings so
compact and instantaneous that it was almost like the

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WATCHING ROOKS 293

report of a gun, the whole troop burst suddenly out
of the trees, which were on the outer edge of the
plantation, flew a little way over the heath (I caught
them against the fading red of the sky), wheeled round,
returned, and shot into them again. There was a little
cawing as they got back, but this soon sank, and again
there was silence. Then, in a moment, there was the
same sudden rush of wings, and the whole black cloud
shot, like one bird, into the o[ten sky, wheeled again,
and shot back, as before. This occurred nine times in
succession, at intervals of not longer, I should think,
than three or four minutes. In the later rushes the
birds circled several times — flying out again, each time,
over the moor — before resettling in the trees. After
the last time they settled in a different part of the
plantation. Immediately before two of the rushes out,
I heard a loud ' caw/ in rather a high-pitched tone,
from a single rook, which seemed to be the signal
for the exodus, whilst, almost immediately afterwards,
there was another single note of quite a different
character— deeper and more guttural — from either the
same or another bird still in the trees, which seemed to
call the rest back again. A well understood signal-
note indeed, would be the easiest way of accounting
for these sudden and extraordinarily simultaneous
flights and returns, but it was only twice out of the
nine times, that this explanation seemed tenable. On
other occasions, the caw, at starting, seemed only one
of many, or did not correspond so exactly, in point of
time, with the sudden flight out, as the theory seemed
to require, whilst the deep 'quaw,' which seemed to
be made by one particular rook, who always stayed
behind, and which I had at first thought called the

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294 BIRD WATCHING

others back, would be heard directly after they had
flown, as well as after they had returned. Several
times, too, the black cloud and thunder-storm of wings
seemed to burst out of silence itself. I came to the
conclusion that a signal-note was not the explanation.
All I can say is, that — from what cause or actuated
by what impulse, I know not — some fifty to a hundred
rooks shot, as though they shared one soul, nine times
in succession, from those dark pines, circled a little
over the dusky moor, and then shot back into them
again. No one, except myself, was near. It was ^4ie
of those very lonely places where, at almost any time,
one can count upon seeing no one, and, altogether, it
struck me as an extraordinary phenomenon.

"Once more, the old Greek idea of the <j*H*n — a
sudden thought, sweeping through a crowd as a wind
sweeps through a grove of trees — seemed to me to
be the only view which met the facts. But what,
then, is the <£i?/«7, and whence, or why, the impulse ?

" All this time, I should say, though quite near, I
was perfectly concealed, standing against a tall pine-
tree, around the trunk of which I had helped to make
a wigwam — already partly formed — of some of its
own fallen and bending branches. This, with the
gloom of the plantation itself, and the falling night,
was a perfect concealment, even at a foot's pace, as
will shortly appear.

" It was just after the last return of the out-shooting
birds that, looking up, I saw what I at first supposed
was they, but soon found to be another, and a very
much more numerous, band of rooks, who, as they
came up, were joined by the other ones, in the air.
Now, for the first time — for the cloud came up in

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silence, and, since the last flight out, there had been
silence in the plantation too — there was a tremen-
dous clamour of voices, filling the whole place, and
then a black, whirling snowstorm of rooks began to
shoot, whirr and whizz about, over, into, through, and
amongst the fir-trees, in a most extraordinary manner.
The rapidity with which they shot about, their hurt-
ling^, their sideway-rushing sweeps and swoops, their
quick, smooth turns and gliding zig-zags, avoiding,
by miracle, each other and the trunks of trees, was
most extraordinary, whilst the whishing noise of their
wings through the air was almost frightening. The
plantation seemed to be a huge disturbed bee-hive,
with great black bees dashing angrily about it It
was a snowstorm with the flakes gone mad ; but
black, a black, living bird-storm, and it produced in
me a feeling of excitement, a peculiar, almost a new,
sensation, analogous, perhaps, to what the birds them-
selves were feeling. What struck me and made it
more interesting, was that it was a special exhibition,
a 'set thing/ something indulged in by the birds
with a peculiar pleasure in the indulgence, something
appertaining to the home-coming — the i heimkehr y —
emanating from and requiring a particular, psychical
state. This is by far the finest display of the kind
I have yet seen, and I was in the very midst of it
Considering the number of birds — there must, I think,
have been several hundreds — the speed at which they
dashed about and the smallness of the space in which
so many were moving with such violence, and so
erratically, it seems wonderful that they never came
into collision, either with one another or the trunks
or branches of the fir-trees. In the plantation, when

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I came into it, two dead rooks were lying, and I had
also picked up a dead one in the larger roosting-
place. The keeper said it had been 'turned out,'
which was vague, and then, more definitely, that rooks
sometimes died of old age. It seems not impossible,
or even improbable, that in these violent whizzings
of a great number of rooks together, amongst closely
growing trees, and in the gloom of evening fading
slowly into night, accidents may, sometimes, occur.
The rooks, I should say, in their violent whizzing
darts and dashes, shot down, sometimes, to about
half the height of the trees, and were, in general,
right in amongst them. This wonderful scene of
bird excitement, lasted, I should think, about ten
minutes, in full action, but grew fainter as the trees
became more and more packed with birds, till, at
length, all were settled. Every tree held several
On two slender ones — not pines but birches — just in
front of me, and but a step or two off, there must
have been more than twenty. The noise and clamour,
during the whole time, was tremendous."

It is not always that rooks dash thus madly to
rest Here — on the very next evening and at the
same place — is another type of the home-coming.

"March $th. — A little after 5.30, a hooded crow
flies into the clump of pines. Whether it stays there
for the night, with the rooks, I cannot tell, but it does
not seem to me improbable. I have seen single birds
of the former species flying amidst large bands of
the latter, and they are constantly together in the
fields, where they behave, in regard to each other,
very much as though they were of the same species.

" At 6.10, which is later than the first batch of rooks

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came yesterday, five birds fly over the plantation but
do not go down into it

"At 6.15 a large, united flock of, perhaps, six or
seven hundred fly up from over the ploughed land
skirting the moor. They utter the 'chug-a, chug-a'
note, characteristic of the homeward flight, but quietly ;
there is very little noise. Just before reaching the
plantation they make a sort of circling eddy in the
air — becoming, as it were, two streams that drift
through each other — then sail on together and circle
some three or four times exactly over it, before de-
scending into its midst This they do without any
of the excited sweeping about of yesterday, and
though, of course, the voice of so many birds is con-
siderable, yet, comparatively, it is very subdued, and
in a very short time — about five minutes — they all
seem settled. Before long, however, some of them,
but quite an inconsiderable number, rise and fly about
over the trees again, but soon resettle, and there is,
now, a deepening silence. No one could imagine that
that little lonely clump of trees held all that great
army of birds. All, to-night, has been wonderfully
decorous. There was something majestic in the way
the rooks flew up — slow-seeming yet swiftly-moving.
Their flight round, over the trees, before sinking, like
night and with the night, upon them, was a fine
sombre scene — the thickening light ('light thickens

and the crow '), the silent, lonely-spreading moor,

the gloomy trees, and, above them, slow - circling
in the dusky air, that inky cloud of life. It
was gloomy, the effect — saddening, yet with the joy
of nature's sadness. The spirit of Macbeth was
in it — 'Here on this blasted heath' —

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' Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
Whilst night's black agents to their prey do rouse.'

"But they sank peacefully down, and all of evil
seemed to go, with their sweet, joyous, innocent, and
well-loved voices."

Here is one last picture, and I would point out
that, on all these three occasions, when the rooks slept
in changed quarters, at a later time of the year, the
way in which they approached or entered the trees,
and the height at which they flew, varied, in a greater
or less degree, from what it had been before.

" March i Uh. — At 6.20 a small band of rooks comes
flapping along in the usual jog-trot way, and enters
the plantation. Some five minutes afterwards a very
large number sail up, flying at a great height, and
gather like a storm-cloud above it They hang over
it, then drift, circling, a little, descending gradually on
outspread wings, till, when at a moderate height above
the tree-tops, they begin to shoot down into them in
the rapid, whizzing manner before described. But
they do not all do this at the same time. It is a
slow and gradual — in its first stages almost a solemn
— entry, and the shooting down itself becomes,
gradually, less rapid. How grand is this to witness !
It is a living storm-cloud discharging its black winged
rain — a simile, indeed, which can hardly fail to suggest
itself, so apparent is the resemblance. At a distance,
I think, the two might be really confounded. The
gradual sinking of the birds, by fine gradations and
almost imperceptibly, from their vast height, is more
like an atmospheric than an organic phenomenon.
The effect is heightened by the loneliness and utter
silence, by the deepening shadows. Night sinks as

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they sink, but the moon is now becoming luminous,
and the swish and ' coo-ee, hook-a-coo-ee ' of peewits
is about one on one's way back, over the heath."

I will conclude this fragment of my rook diary by
giving a list of some of the distinct notes or sounds
which I have, at different times, heard the birds utter.
It is but a small page out of their vocabulary, but it
may, perhaps, serve to draw attention to the great
powers of modulation and inflexion which these birds
possess. I must confess that the way in which the
voice of the rook is usually spoken of makes me
wonder. To me it has often seemed as though these
birds were really in process of evolving a language.
In only a few cases, however, have I been able — or
have I thought myself able — to connect a note with
any particular act or state of mind. Here is the
list :

Caw (the ordinary "caw" more or less).

Chl-choo, ch!-choo, chl-choo.

Cha.

Chug-a, chug-a, chug-a.

Chug-chaw.

Chack-a, chack-a.

Choo (very prolonged).

Chuck (loud, clear, and distinct).

Chee-ow (very lengthened).

Hi-cha ("a" as in "hat").

Har-char.

How-chow, or chow-how.

Hoo, hoo.

Hook-a-hoo.

Hook-a-hoo-loo.

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Kwubba-wubba.

Ow (prolonged, a peculiar musical piping note).

Polyglot (or something remarkably like it).

Quar-r-r-r.

Quor-r-r-r-r-r (very prolonged, and deep, as in

remonstrance).
Quow-yow, or yow-quow.
Shook, shook, shook (soft and quickly repeated.

Have heard it uttered by rooks when flying

home belated, after the great majority had

settled in the roosting-trees).
Tchar.

Tchar-r-r (with a little roll in it).
Tchu or tew.

Tchoo-oo (very deep and guttural).
The peculiar "burring" note (uttered, but by no

means always, when the birds swoop down

on to trees, especially the roosting-trees. It

is not heard very frequently).
A peculiar sound like a kind of bleat, with a very

complaining tone in it.
A short, sharp, single note, much higher than the

ordinary caw.
A kind of grating scream, much higher than the

usual tone.
A hoarse "mew," or "miaul" almost, as though a

rook were trying to imitate a cat, or a cat

a rook.
The liquid castanet-note in the throat, suggesting

the "burr," but not quite it
Various other curious little sounds in the throat,

some of them clicks.

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CHAPTER XII

Watching Blackbirds, Nightingales,
Sand-martins, eta

BlRDS are never more charming to watch than when
they are building their nests, and, of all our British
nest-builders, few, perhaps, build more charmingly than
the blackbird. It is the hen alone that collects and
shapes the materials, but the male bird accompanies
her in every excursion either to or from the nest
When she is busied in its construction he sits in a
tree or a bush near by, and, on her leaving it for fresh
leaves or moss, follows her in a series of flights from
tree to tree, and, finally, down on to the ground, where
the two hop about, closely in each other's company.
It is seldom that the hen flies at once to where she
means to collect her materials, though time after time
it may be at the same place. Usually she flies past
the tree — all beautiful in spring and early morning —
where the cock sits, and perches in another at some
little distance beyond it There you may lose sight
of her, but as soon as you see her handsome gold-
billed mate leave his bower and fly to hers, you know
301

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that she has flown on, and is now perched somewhere
else. Thus you may see them glancing through the
greenwood, she usually leading, but sometimes each
alternately passing the other. Coming to the collect-
ing ground — for there is usually some spot more
liked by the birds than any other — the hen flies down
and begins to hop about, making, at intervals, little
dives forward with her bill, till she has collected some
moss, dry grass, or quite a little bundle of dead brown
leaves. The male bird follows her all about, hopping
where she hops, prying where she pries, and seeming
to make a point of doing all that she does except
actually collect material for the nest, and this, in my
experience, he never does do. Then, the one laden,
the other empty-billed, they both fly back in just the
same way, and the cock will sit again, often in the same
tree, whilst the hen adds her store to the growing bulk
of the nest I have watched a pair make thirty-one
excursions to and from the nest between five and eight
o'clock in the morning. By half-past eight or nine
the building would cease, nor would it be commenced
again during the rest of the day.*

Anything lovelier than the picture presented by
the two birds thus busied together in the early, dewy
morning, it would be difficult to imagine. It would
arouse the enthusiasm of all except very dull people,
and is even a prettier thing to see, I think, than when
both male and female work jointly. In the latter
case the straightforward business element predomin-
ates, but here, the attendance of the male bird upon
the female, and his evident pleasure in such attend-
ance, his anxious interest in what she is doing, and
joy in seeing her do it, throws a more romantic

* As far as I could ascertain this by coming a few times at intervals.

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element into the picture. It is that which makes me
extend the word "busy" to both the birds, for the
cock is as busy in escorting and observing the hen
as she is in collecting the materials for and building
the nest; whilst that she loves him and is cheered
by his society, his presence making "the labour she
delights in " still more a joy, is also apparent These
are sweet and lovely things to see, and the joy
of them is the greater that the emotions concerned
are so direct and simple, without those windings and
ambiguities, those side-issues and counter - currents
which, with us, lead direct to grey hairs, and novels
not by Scott or Jane Austen. Here are no trouble-
some entanglements, no tiresome perplexities, no con-
scientious sacrificings of the best beloved to every
other possible person and consideration. All is sweet
simplicity and giving up to — not giving up. These
blackbirds love each other and carry it through.
They do not think of twenty other blackbirds and
fail or come in draggle-tail at the end — as in the
novels. Nor are they bothered with "questions."
It is refreshing — most refreshing — to see them — like a
sparkle of Gilbert after some very " serious " dulness.

Roughly speaking, there are three stages in the
building of a blackbird's nest. The first or founda-
tion stage consists of moss, sticks, and leaves ; the
second is the mud stage ; and the third, that of dry
grass and fibre, with which the interior is finally lined.
The nest of the blackbird differs, in this respect, from
that of the thrush. The latter bird, as is well known,
lays its eggs in a smooth plastered cup formed, not
of mud, as one would think, but of rotten wood and
cow-dung. The blackbird, after having collected all

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the moss and leaves that it deems necessary and made
therewith the mass and bulk of the nest, resorts to
some little ditch or sluggish stream and trowels up
from its margin mud indeed, but not mud alone, for
there is amidst it — generally, if not always — a certain
proportion of the fibrous roots or rootlets of mud-
loving aquatic plants. Of these, the bird can take a
firm hold with its bill, and as the mud adheres to the
fibrous network, it is enabled to carry a considerable
quantity of it at a time, though a greater or less
amount often falls off during the passage. It is in
this circumstance, as I believe, that one can read the
origin of the " extraordinary habit," as Darwin calls
it, of a bird's plastering the inside of its nest with
mud. It is the thrush to which he alludes, but the
description applies equally, and, in respect of the
material employed, still more accurately, to the black-
bird. At a certain point in its construction, the nest
of the latter would be mistaken by anyone without
previous experience, for that of a thrush, the cup being
as deep and perfect in form and the workmanship not
noticeably inferior. It is, however, of a darker colour
— black, or approaching to black — though this may
vary, according to locality. Over the whole surface
are seen the scorings of the bird's beak, which seems
to have been used as a trowel. But now, if the nest
had been examined a day or two before, its interior,
and, especially, the bottom of it, would have been found
to be composed of a dank moist mass of vegetation,
largely consisting of small water-plants, both the green
part and the roots, to the many fibres of which latter a
quantity of mud was adhering. Here, then, we read
the whole story. Fibrous material was needed on

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general principles by the female blackbird, and she
found it in the spreading network of rootlets, belonging
to water-loving plants that grew in little rills and ditches,
near about her bosky brakes. But to this, mud clung,
and, in consequence, there came to be a good deal of
the latter in the cup of the nest Something must be
done with it She began to daub and press it, and, as
she became, gradually, more and more a plasterer, mud
seemed more and more the proper sort of material to
use, till, at last, she sought it for itself alone, utilising
the fibres which bound it together, and which had, at
first, been what, alone, she sought, as a means of con-
veying it But when the mud, thus brought, had been
thoroughly smoothed and plastered, so that the nest
seemed perfect and "a thing complete," like the
thrush's, there would still be something more to be
done, for she — our hen blackbird — had always been
accustomed to work in stages, and the final or grass-
thatching stage had not yet been entered upon. There-
fore, she would cover up and entirely conceal all her
fine plaster-work, so that no one, seeing the finished
nest, would imagine that it existed in any part of it
But will she always do this? I cannot think it, for
she is a bird of sprightly intelligence, and I believe
that, like the thrush, she will some day find out that
the neatly-plastered cup of mud does quite well enough
to lay her eggs in, and that the further labour of
thatching it with grass can be very well dispensed with.
Any saving of time or of labour must be of advantage
to a species in the struggle for existence, and those
birds who thatched their nests more thinly would be
enabled to lay their eggs sooner, and thus rear more
offspring. In this way, as well as on the " least action "
U

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principle, and the exercise of ordinary intelligence, the
last stage of lining the cup with grass may finally cease.
It has ceased with the thrush, but, with the thrush,
there has been a still further process of change, for it
no longer plasters its nest with mud, but with decaying
wood and with cow-dung. Assuming the ancestors of
the bird to have once used mud, and lined the interior,
as does the blackbird, there does not seem to me to
be any great difficulty in explaining this change. The
blackbirds that I watched building their nest, always,
when the proper period arrived, flew to a certain part
of a little muddy dyke (it is in a land of dykes that
I reside) some little way from the plantation in which
the nest was situated, and there, lying flat behind tufts
and tussocks of reeds and grass, I watched them take
their mud as I have described — the female, that is to
say, but a husband much interested in seeing a baby
carried would deserve half the credit of carrying it
Now, much nearer, probably, than this specially-re-
sorted-to dyke was some decayed tree or tree-trunk,
whilst over the fields which it intersected and which ad-
joined the plantation, cows or oxen sometimes grazed.
Here, again, a change in the working material might
prove of advantage, and when once a bird had become
a plasterer, intelligence, and also haste, might lead it
to use whatever came first to hand Bees will carry
oatmeal instead of pollen if the former be put in their
way, and birds may be credited with equal adaptability.
After watching blackbirds building, and examining
the nest in its various stages of construction, I think it
much more likely that the thrush has passed through,
and then discarded, a final stage of thatching the nest,
than that it has stopped short at the stage of plaster-

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ing, and not yet got to the one of thatching or lining.
Numberless birds, including other members of this
family, line their nests with grass or other soft
materials, whereas plastering is a comparatively rare
habit It is legitimate to assume that that which is
common has preceded that which is rare. I would
here point out that whilst, in works of ornithology,
reference is always made to the strange habit which
the thrush has of daubing its nest, nothing, as a rule, is
said in regard to the similar habit of the blackbird, or,
if anything is, we are told merely that mud is used to
bind the materials together. The facts, however, are
as I state, and, did the blackbird not line its nest with
grass after it had so carefully plastered it with mud
brought from the waterside, it would be as noted in
this respect as is the thrush, its near relative.

I have never heard the male blackbird sing whilst
thus attending the female as she built her nest, not
even when he waited for her in a tree, during the
actual time of its fashioning, though here was a fine
poetical opportunity for him. Song, it seemed, had
ended when once his bride had been won, and his
rivals vanquished by it It was the same, to a con-
siderable extent, with a pair of nightingales that I
watched under similar circumstances. I did, indeed,
sometimes hear the song when the bird singing was
invisible, and, therefore, I cannot say that it was
not this particular one, which, for other reasons I am
inclined to think that it was. But during far the
greater part of the time, and always when I could see
him, he was as silent as his mate. It was in the early
morning and not the night-time, but nightingales sing
at all hours, both of the day and night The early

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morning is, indeed, a favourite time with them, and it
is then, in the beginning of spring, when nests have
yet to be built and before the birds are properly
married, that one can best observe how powerful a
vehicle of hatred and rivalry their melodious strains
are. I have closely watched two rival males for nearly
an hour. Let anyone refer to my account of the rival
wheatears, substitute a plantation with bush and tangle,
and the turf- bordered roadside adjoining, for the
open, sandy warrens, and song — but much more fre-
quently indulged in — for the little frenzied dancings,*
and the two pictures will be identical, or nearly so.
There was the same keeping close to, yet not appear-
ing to follow, each other, the attending to each other's
motions without seeming specially to watch them, the
drawing near and, then, getting apart, only to approach
again, the little bursts of fury — but here, mostly,
harmonious — preceding each engagement, and sur-
mounting, each time, that discretionary part of valour,
which, in either case, both the birds seemed largely to
possess. There were three engagements, one bird, each
time, making, as though no longer able to control it-
self, a sudden little frenzied dash at the other. In no
case, however, was the conflict very severe, and the
attacked bird soon flew away, with which result the
attacker seemed well satisfied. It looked more like a
little furious play than a real fight, and so, no doubt, it
would, were Moth or Cobweb to have a tussle with
Peaseblossom or Mustard seed. Oberon and Titania,
indeed, "squared" so, that —
"All their elves, for fear,
Crept into acorn-cups, and hid them there."

* The wheatears, however, sang as well as danced.

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But, here, the audience were themselves fairies, so that
it was all in proportion. Besides, the war was but of
words, and, in these, we see how the prettiness of being
fairies prevails, even over the relationship in which the
two stood to each other. So it was with these warriors;
they were rivals, and stuffed full of dislike, nay hatred,
but, also, they were birds — and nightingales.

Jealousy, however, did not seem to blind them to the
merit of each other's performance. Though, often, one,
upon hearing the sweet, hostile strains, would burst
forth instantly itself — and here there was no certain
mark of appreciation — yet sometimes, perhaps quite
as often, it would put its head on one side and listen
with exactly the appearance of a musical connoisseur
weighing, testing, and appraising each note as it issued
from the rival bill. A curious, half-surprised expression
would steal, or seem to steal (for fancy may play her
part in such matters) over the listening bird, and the idea
appeared to be, " How exquisite would be those strains,

were they not sung by , and yet, I must admit

that they are exquisite." Sometimes, however, there
would be no special response on the part of the one
bird, either by voice or attitude, whilst the other was
singing. During these musical combats I often saw a
third and silent bird, hopping with demure, modest look
— by virtue of which it seemed rather to creep than
to hop— just within, or just on the outside of, this or
that briery bower. This I took to be the female,
and, thinking so, it was easy to detect a little side-
glance thrown, now and again, towards one or another
of the rival suitors, in which seemed expressed the
thought of a pretty, little bird (but a lady-bird) —
Bunthorne —

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"Round the corner I can see,
Each is kneeling on his knee."

Yet this bird may have been but another male, to
whom the next unseen notes that I heard were,
perhaps, due. Always I bless those birds whose
sexes are plainly distinguishable from each other.

What was very noticeable in these nightingales —
and the remark applies to others that I have closely
listened to — was that, even when not singing against
each other, they made little noises in their throats,
and these, when distinctly heard, resolved them-
selves into a deep, guttural sound, which, though
far from unpleasing, could hardly be called anything
but a croak. This sound, as I have noticed, is very
frequently uttered. It often commences the song, or
is even intermingled with, though it can scarcely be
said to belong to, it It does not, in this case,
diminish the beauty of the melody ; yet, did it stand
alone, the nightingale would be merely a somewhat
musical croaker. Probably this is what it once
has been, the low, croaking note representing the
original utterance of the bird, on which the song, by
successive variations, and choice of them on the part
of the female, has been founded. Just as in the dull
plumage of female pheasants and other birds, the
males of which are splendidly adorned, or in both
the sexes of some species belonging to the same
families, we see the early state of their common,
plain progenitors, so, in song-birds, the uninspired,
workaday voice of call-note or twitter — the spoken
language, as one may call it — probably represents the
humble roots from which the various trees of song,
with all their diversified branchings, and fluttering,

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trembling leaves, have shot up, beautifully, into the
sky. How distinct in their glories are the mature
males of the golden, silver, the impeyan, or our own
common pheasant ; how drabbily alike are the females
of all of them, and they themselves in their first
early plumage ! So, whilst the song of the blackbird,
missel, song-thrush, fieldfare, or redwing are distinct,
or suggest each other only by their general quality,
all have a high, harsh, scolding note, which is very
much the same, except in degree, though differing in
the frequency with which it is employed. Loudest
and harshest of all is the fieldfare, and this bird has
hardly developed a song. The missel, whose lay is
very inferior to that of the song-thrush, is also a
frequent and loud scolder, so that many a man,
whilst alone and in the wild woods, might fancy him-
self within the bosom of his family. In the common
thrush, however, who is such a fine singer, this note
of fear is not nearly so often heard * and its shrewish
character, though still there, has been softened. In
the blackbird it is still more rare, yet occasionally, if I
mistake not, it is uttered. Again, the well-known note
of the blackbird, when disturbed (though this varies
considerably), is common, also, though in a less degree,
to the thrush, t so that it is possible to mistake the
one bird for the other. The same remarks apply to
many finches and other small birds, who, whilst they
sing very differently, chirp and twitter in much the
same way. In all these cases, as I believe, there is a
certain correspondence between the tone or pitch of
the language and that of the song. From the low

* Proximity to the nest, with young, is the most frequent cause,
t Especially when driven from the eggs.

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croak, as I have called it, of the nightingale, it would
be difficult to imagine the high, clear notes of the
thrush having been developed, whilst it would account
for the low key in which its own are generally pitched.
What I mean is — for I am not versed in musical
terminology — that, in the nightingale's song, there are
not those high, clear, ringing notes which we hear in
that of the thrush, blackcap, skylark, and many other
birds, just as in these we may listen in vain for those
richer and more liquid tones which charm us so in
the nightingale. Beautiful as these tones are, they
do not, any more than those of other birds, include
every excellence, and that particular one which they
lack, being common to so many of our songsters, has
come to be something which one loves and listens
for, whenever biyd sings upon bough. Partly because
of this, perhaps, and partly because of the very pre-
eminence of the nightingale as a singer, I have some-
times missed these franker, woodland-wilder strains
whilst listening to its song, in a way in which I have
never missed its own more dulcet notes from the
song of lark or thrush. To say that Pindar is not
also Sappho is no blame to Pindar, but the short
continuance and frequent pauses in the song of the
nightingale is, I think, a real fault, and from the
blame of it this prima donna frequently escapes,
when other sweet, but not so all-belauded, singers
are taken thereupon to task. The poor blackbird,
for instance, whose ditty is most " lovely-sweet," has
been rated in these terms ; yet, as a rule, in my
experience, it sings continuously, for a longer time
than does the nightingale, whose sometimes almost
constant cessations, just when one's whole soul cries

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out, like Jacques, " More, more, I prythee, more," have
even an irritating effect Indeed, if this were always
so it would be a serious drawback, even to a song so
full of excellence. But it is not always so. Some-
times, on still, warm nights when the stars seem to
breathe and tremble and the air is like a lazy kiss
(and if nights are not like this in England, yet the
song itself makes them seem so), the rich, full notes
are poured forth in a continuous stream of melody
that lasts long, and, whilst it lasts, seems to create
the world afresh. Some time afterwards, indeed, one
notices that the effect has not been quite so powerful,
and that this crying want has still to be filled — but
the dear bird has done its best

"Sie jubelt so traurig, sie schluchzet so froh,
Vergessene Traiime erwachen, w

says Heine, whilst others say that the song is apt
to keep them awake at night, and, having first paid
their orthodox tribute to its supremacy over every
other, will confess that they have sometimes been
obliged to open the window and throw something
out to put a stop to it Yet the thought of how
appreciative the world really is, and how severely a
heretic in such a matter may be dealt with, shall
not deter me from expressing a slight doubt as to
the reality of this supremacy — or, at least, of its
extent and absoluteness. Letters each year to the
papers, from people who have been so fortunate as
to hear the nightingale long before the nightingale
is accustomed to reach our shores, have given rise
to the suspicion that a thrush is, in most cases, the
real performer ; and if this be so, it shows that, with
many, the comparative merits of the two depend upon

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3H BIRD WATCHING

its being known, for certain, which is which. For
myself, I go with the genefal opinion in this respect,
yet it is difficult to summon up in imagination the
effect that the clear, joyous notes of the thrush might
have upon one, did they ring out in the silence and
stillness of the night And if this is true in regard
to the thrush, does it not apply still more to the
skylark ? — a bird whose lovely and long-continued out-
pouring, uttered, as it is, in the day and all around
— common, and therefore, of necessity, undervalued —
may yet, as it appears to me, in spite of such a
disadvantage, well challenge comparison with the
song of the nightingale itself. If we look to effect,
at any rate, the former bird seems to have inspired
poets as highly, or almost as highly, as the latter.
Then we have an opinion which, perhaps, may have
been that of Shakespeare himself, who was a rare
lover of music, that

The nightingale, if she should sing by day
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.

Now the nightingale does sing by day, and, as a
matter of fact, she is then thought at least no better
than the lark or thrush — in fact, she is, like these,
often not noticed at all, as I have had some oppor-
tunities of observing. This, at least, shows that some
of the effect produced upon some of us by this bird's
song, is due to that added and exquisite poetry which
night and silence gives to it We have no other
night-singing bird who is sufficiently common, and
whose song is at the same time sufficiently distin-
guished for it to attract much attention, and there-

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fore the nightingale has this great advantage
practically all to itself. I cannot help thinking that
it owes to this that easy and unquestioned superiority
which has been accorded to it in popular estimation
over all our other song-birds, especially such glorious
ones as the skylark, thrush, blackcap, blackbird, etc*

It will be said that I cannot appreciate the song of
the nightingale, though I am trying only properly
to appreciate that of other members of the choir.
Yet if I were to say that Shakespeare was full of
imperfections, that Julius Casar was a dull play,
King Lear a — I forget what, something uncompli-
mentary — play, and Richard III. such a one as
allowed "the discerning admirer" (a notn de plume)
to see the author's quill-driven expression whilst
writing it; that, moreover, the seven ages of man
was by no means a fine passage, and that Hamlet's
soliloquy had been much over-rated, it would not be
said, on this account, that I was unable to appreciate
Shakespeare. I judge so, because others who make
these and similar statements (whether they or the
Baconians are the more pestilent, I find it difficult to
decide) pass, apparently, for the appreciative persons,
which, I suppose, they think themselves to be. Yet
how they can think so puzzles me, for people who
write in this way must be, really, as much bored by
Shakespeare as Shakespeare would have been by them,
had an introduction been possible — and surely they
must have found this out I wish the poor, gullible

* But do the musical powers of some birds differ in different
countries? Never have I heard the two last sinq here as I have in
Germany. Germans, as we know, are very musical. Have the same
general causes which etc., etc. ?

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316 BIRD WATCHING

public would. How I should rejoice to be accused —
yes, and even convicted — of having no ear for the
song of the nightingale, if only it could be discovered,
also, that " critics " who, with a natural incapacity for
seeing beauty in beauty, yet step modestly forward
to teach us, and dance as fantastically on the body of
a dead poet as did ever a Lilliputian on that of the
sleeping Gulliver, are neither profound nor discerning
nor even literary, but merely dull dogs posing, of
which sort, indeed, most "great oneyers" keep their
pack. Yet I wish they could leave the imperfections
of Shakespeare (which they discern in his master-
strokes) as utterly beyond them, and busy themselves
only with the perfections of such Baviuses and
Mceviuses as it is their wont to crown. I commend
them to old Bunyan with his "'Then/ said Mr
Blind-man, c I see clearly ' " — and so pass on.

The sweet song of the nightingale has caused the
more stress to be laid upon the sobriety of its colour-
ing, the natural tendency being to exaggerate such a
contrast But now, when one watches for the bird
in the shade of leafy thickets, the way in which it
generally reveals itself is by a sudden flash of red or
chestnut brown, a bright spot of colour which is con-
spicuously visible, sometimes even in the centre of a
thorn-bush, and, one may almost say, brilliantly so,
as its wearer flits amongst the trees and undergrowth.
This brightness belongs to the tail generally, but there
must, I think, be either upon or just above it — on the
upper tail coverts, perhaps — a specially bright and
more ruddy-hued patch which produces the effect of
which I speak ; and as nightingales habitually haunt
wooded and umbrageous spots, it has sometimes

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occurred to me that this has been developed as a
guiding star for one to follow another by, just as the
white tail of the rabbit is supposed to have been. I
have often watched two pursuing each other through
the dim leafiness, each uttering a variant of the deep,
croaking note of which I have spoken, and which
answers to the call, chirp, or twitter amongst other
birds. At such times the ruddy star or streak has
always, as I say, been most conspicuous. Indepen-
dently of this, the bird's general colouring is a pleas-
ing olive brown which, according to position and
circumstances, has a more or less glossy appearance,
the tail having received the finest polish. By virtue
of all this, I feel sure that, to anyone who had watched
and waited for her, the nightingale would come rather
as a conspicuous than a dull-looking bird, at least
amongst our smaller British birds. Tits and chaf-
finches, as it seems to me, flash less as they flit
through the trees. Therefore, when I read the eternal
remarks about its dull colouring, which — and this is
the bane of natural history— one writer hands down
from the mouth of another through the generations,
I say to myself that each and all of them have, either,
never called upon the bird and stayed an hour or two,
or else that they have got out of the habit — which
may be also a trouble — of seeing anything other than
as u it is written." So far from the nightingale being
specially like a plain-bound book in which lovely
songs are contained, to me it seems to offer an
example of a bird distinguished both by its musical
powers and — to a much lesser extent, certainly, but
still not insignificantly — by its colour also. I am
thinking of its tail, and particularly of that ruddy

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318 BIRD WATCHING

star or patch which, I think, is upon it, and which,
little as it may seem in a stuffed specimen or one
quite still or hardly seen, becomes a conspicuous
feature under such circumstances as I have men-
tioned. That this patch, or the whole tail, means
something I feel sure, but as to whether it is a badge
or an ornament — whether natural or sexual selection *
has been at work — I can say little. In the latter case
the same force would have been brought to bear in
two different directions, and this, I think, has been
often the case with our song-birds, though it seems
to have been agreed to talk as if the opposite were.
Surely the bullfinch, chaffinch, robin, linnet, green-
finch, and others — the males of all of which show
off to some extent before the females — have been
selected (if at all) as much by the eye as by the ear
of the latter ; whilst the lyre-bird of Australia offers
an example of a highly adorned species that is also
conspicuously musical. The nightingale is glossy, and
sometimes — in effect, at least, and in some part of it —
bright It may be getting brighter, but, if so, it will
probably have to rival the kingfisher before it ceases
to be an encouraging symbol to those who hide a
worth which they feel beneath a want which every-
body can see.

No good illustration, that I know of, exists of the
nightingale ; none, at least, which at all resembles the
bird as I have seen it, either sitting, hopping, flying,

* Sexual, as I now believe. A recent lucky glimpse of nightingale
courtship has assured me that I have not unconsciously exaggerated.
Indeed, the ruddy glow of the broadly fanned tail, caught in the last
rays of the descending sun, could hardly be exaggerated. But the
colour was on all the rectrices. They alone, I think, are the patch,
the star.

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BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 319

singing, or silent In natural history books, after we
have been solemnly told that the male alone sings,
that his song constitutes his courtship, and that, there-
fore, both the " she n and the " melancholy " of poets
are incorrect, we are generally presented with a gaunt,
scraggy-looking creature, having a woe-begone gaze
which is fixed upon the moon, towards which its neck
and whole body seem drawn out, as by some attractive
force. This is the nightingale of convention, but
when I have seen it, it has always looked the pleas-
ingly plump, cheerful, little, brisk, active body that it
really is, and when it sang it was without any " pose,"
in a hunched-up, careless-looking attitude, which had
almost a feathered podginess about it The legs were
bent, the feathers of the ventral surface touching, or
almost touching, the twig of perch, the head inclining
forward at an easy angle — a cosy, homely, happy, con-
tented appearance. I have watched one singing thus
for some time. Not once did he rear himself up, so
as to become long, thin, and tubey — tubby he was
rather, and had not the faintest resemblance to a
horrible, man-made, first-prize-for-deformity canary
bird. Just in the same way, too, he will often sing on
the ground, looking as homely and rotund as can be.
True it is, as the natural history books tell us, that
no one familiar with the bird and its habits would
think of calling it or its song melancholy ; therefore
(as these never add), remembering Milton's famous
line, let us be thankful that he as well as some other
poets were not familiar with it There has long
been a nightingale of poetry and literature, grown
out of its own song but having little to do with the
real bird, which no one except strict scientists — an<t

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3JO BIRD WATCHING

a literary critic or two — would wish to do away
with.

With regard to the nest - building habits of the
nightingale, I have only the space to say that, as in
the case of the blackbird, the female alone collects
and arranges the materials, being attended upon
whilst she does so — though, perhaps, not quite so
closely — by the male. One should be cautious, how-
ever, in concluding that such is always the case either
with this or other birds, for I have watched, for some
time, one of a pair of long-tailed tits bringing feathers
to the nest, whilst the other kept near about, with
nothing in its bill Yet ordinarily both sexes work
together in a most exemplary way. Nothing can
look prettier than these little, soft, pinky, feathery
things, as they creep mousily into their soft, little
purse of a nest ; nothing can look prettier than they
do as they sit within it, pulling, pushing, ramming,
patting, and arranging; finally, nothing can look
prettier than they look as they again creep out of
it and fly away. Their perpetual feat of turning
round in the nest without dislocating the tail, is also
one of those few earthly things in the seeing of which
one cannot weary.

I have often tried to watch these little birds collect-
ing, so as to see them actually find and fly away with
the materials for the nest This, however, I found
more difficult than I had expected. Every time I
saw them fly out of their nest, but in spite of stealthy
following, I generally lost them soon after they had
entered a plantation close to where, in a fir-hedge, it
was. All I could be sure of was that they flew about in
different directions, sometimes into tall fir-trees, some-

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times into low tangles and bushes, sometimes, too,
across the road again and into different parts of the
fir-hedge. "They keep, for the most part, together,
and whenever they are near enough I hear their soft,
subdued little 'chit chit 1 As lichen, which is what
they are now principally collecting, is everywhere
about on the trunks of trees, etc., it would seem as
though even a minute would be a long time for them
to take in getting a piece and returning with it, if
they took it at random ; and the inference appears to
be that they exercise choice and selection, and return
each time from the nest with a definite idea of the
kind of bit they want next"

I will here quote, from my notes, an observa-
tion I made on the way these little birds roost at
night, which may, perhaps, be of interest. "On my
way back I noticed some object which I took to be
a dead bird, in a tall, straggling brier-bush that formed
a kind of bower, inside which one could stand up
Thinking that this bird might have been transfixed
by a shrike, I came right under it, and, pulling
down the branches with my stick, to my astonishment
the object separated and became four little, fluttering,
1 cluttering/ long -tailed tits that had been sitting
wedged close together. I stood perfectly still, and
after they had 'chit, chitted* a little, and made a
few little hops about the bush, two of them came
back from different directions to just the same place,
snoozled up to each other and were settled again for
the night Very soon, a third hopped on to the two
backs and pressed himself down between them, taking
no denial, and, indeed, not receiving any. The fourth
remained a little longer apart, perhaps for ten minutes,
X

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322 BIRD WATCHING

during all which time I stood without a motion, lean-
ing on my stick, and had, at last, the satisfaction to
see him come perching down towards the bough, then
perch on the three backs just as the third had Id one
on the two, and squeeze himself in amongst them
so that two were on one side of him and one on the
other. All four now sat closely pressed together,
three tails projecting on one side of the twig, and
the fourth on the other. I sat down in the bush
and made this entry, whilst the birdies — surely the
prettiest little ones, almost, in the world — went to
sleep.

" Next night, at about six, I took up my position in
the same place, and waited. After I had sat silently
for a few minutes, I saw a pair of the tits creeping
softly about through the bushes adjacent, uttering the
little chitter in a very subdued tone. One was soon in
the actual bush, but crept out of it again and went
away with the other. In another four or five minutes,
however, they both return, this time coming more
quickly and directly to the bush, when soon getting,
from opposite sides, to very much the same part of
it as before, they sidle to each other along the par-
ticular twig and then squeeze and press together so
tightly that their outline on the inner side is quite lost,
like that of a double cherry. Thus pressed and
wedged, each little bird preens itself, the two little
heads moving about and seeming to belong to one
quite round body, having one tail — for their two tails
are pressed, for their whole length, together. When
their heads turn inwards the little birds appear to
be caressing each other, and they must, I think, some-
times catch hold of each other's feathers, but it is all

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part, or intended to be part, of the process of preening
themselves. This close pressing seems to be a pleasure
in itself, independently of the result of warmth, for
sometimes they will come unstuck, as it were, and
move a little away from each other along the twig, in
order to press and squeeze again. For a little, then,
their tails may be separate, but soon they rejoin, and,
the heads being now quiet — for they are going to
sleep — and tucked closely in amongst the feathers
of the breast, their outlines, never very salient, are
entirely lost, and the two birds have become one
perfectly globular one, without a head and with a long
tail. Thus two of these long-tailed tits have returned
again to roost in the same place, but the other pair
do not come to the bush."

It is interesting to watch sand-martins building
their nests, or, rather, excavating the tunnels in which
they will afterwards be built To see one enter one
of these whilst it is yet but a few inches long, and
then to see the dust powdering out at the aperture,
as from the mouth of an ensconced cannon, is pretty.
The sand is scratched out backwards with the feet,
but the bird also uses its bill as a pickaxe, often
making a series of rapid little blows with it, almost
like a woodpecker, the wings, which quite cover the
body, quivering at the same time. Both sexes work
at the hole, and both often fly together to it, one
remaining clinging at the edge whilst the other
scratches out the sand from inside. I have seen one
sitting just in the embrasure, quietly regarding the
outer world and, thus, impeding the entrance of his
partner, who at last squeezed by him with great
difficulty. Sometimes three or four will descend upon

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324 BIRD WATCHING

the same hole and cling there without quarrelling ; but
once I saw a bird in a hole attacked by another, who
flew suddenly down upon it with a little twittering
scream.

Though each pair of birds excavate their own
tunnel, yet the whole community, or, at any rate, a
large proportion of it, will sometimes work together,
sweeping on to the pit's face in a body, clinging there
and burrowing, with a constant twittering, then darting
off silently in a cloud and sailing and circling round
in the pit's amphitheatre, making, when the sky is
blue and the sun bright, a warm and delicious picture
such as the Greeks must have loved to gaze on.

As each bird, however, only works at his own and
his partner's hole, it is evident that this kind of social
working is not the same as that of ants or bees and
other such insect communities, though it has some-
thing of that appearance. Sometimes, for a short
time, all the birds will keep fluttering round in small
circles that only extend a little beyond the face of
the cliff, not rising to a greater height than their
own tunnels in it, which they almost touch each time,
as they come round. They look like eddies in a
stream beneath the bank, but are not so silent, for
all are twittering excitedly. This is an interesting
thing to see, a kind of aerial manoeuvres the special
cause of which, if there be one, is not obvious.

But we will suppose that the birds are now all work-
ing, either inside their tunnels or clinging to the face
of the cliff. All at once, either at or about the same
instant of time, they all fly off, darting away, and
disseminate themselves in the sky, not one being
left either in or about the pit In a .few minutes

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BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC 3*5

they return, but, as is the case with the small birds
at the stacks, not in nearly so instantaneous or simul-
taneous a manner; and this may be repeated for a
greater or lesser number of times. All the remarks
that I have made in regard to this phenomenon in the
case of other birds apply equally here, perhaps, indeed,
to a greater extent ; for, as remarked, at the moment
of each sudden exodus a certain number — sometimes
about half — of these sand-martins will be more or less
hidden within the holes they are excavating, yet out
they all dart with the rest Such sudden flights and
disappearances for a few minutes, after which all come
back, strike me as being extremely curious.

Sand-martins appear to be pugnacious. Indeed,
they sometimes fight fiercely, and I have seen two,
after closing with a sharp, shrill " charr "and struggling
in the air for a little, roll down the steep declivity of
sand in which the perpendicular face of the pit often
ends. It, therefore, seems the more curious that they
allow their holes to be taken possession of by sparrows
(and, also, by tree-sparrows) — without offering any
resistance. I have seen one of the latter birds sitting
quietly and calmly in the mouth of a hole, whilst a
pair of martins, who had, probably, excavated it,
hovered excitedly just over and about him, but
without doing more. On many other more or less
similar occasions there has been excitement on the
part of the martins, but never an attack. Yet a tree-
sparrow, or even a sparrow, is not such a very much
larger and stronger bird than a sand-martin, and,
considering the numbers of the latter, as well as their
greater activity and powers of flight, it seems to me
an odd thing that they should submit to such a

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3*6 BIRD WATCHING

If they arc not capab l e of
' together in order to expel a stranger from
the colony, this speaks little Car their intelligence,
as they have, at least, been generally two to one.
This is a good working majority, and why, under
ytuTt fiff fTfrgiKiaiy^c ^jj im pudent spai row <**^**Vf be
allowed to sit quietly in the home wh e reintD he has
intruded, I cannot quite understand. But so it is,
or to, at least, it has been, in my own npwi e n re

But I most not wrong the spar r ow. Let me recall
that word "impudent," and bury still more deeply
another one, to wit, * unscrupulous," that I was about
to make use o£ A sparrow, when he thus acts, is
simply annexing territory, and should have all the
credit of forbearance and self-sacrifice that belongs
to such an act His motives in doing so are, no
doubt, as creditable as are those which restrain him
from acting similarly in the case of more powerful
birds, and if a doubt of this should ever cross his
mind, he need only read a newspaper or two and
listen to some speeches in "the House." He will
know the integrity of his own heart — then.

It seem s wonderful that a bird of the swallow tribe
— so aerial, and without any special structural adapta-
tion for burrowing — should be capable of driving
horizontal shafts into the face of a bank or pit, to
the length, sometimes, of seven or even, it is said,
nine feet Though the excavations be in sand, yet
this is often of a very firm consistency, and, moreover,
in many pits, the face of which had been largely
tunnelled by these birds, sand was a good deal
mingled with a fairly stiff clay. Though I have
not been able to watch the process of excavation from

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the commencement, so thoroughly as I should have
liked to have done, yet I have seen it to a certain
extent, and I will now quote from the notes which
I took down on one such occasion:

"May 2 5 /A.— At the pit about 7.15 A.M. A great
number of birds are working, and there is not now
the same regularity in their movements — all coming
to the holes and darting away together at intervals —
as was the case, for a time, at least, when I first
watched them. Though so late, several birds are
but just commencing to make their holes, and to
watch these is most interesting. Two plans seem
to be employed. In the first, the bird constantly
flutters its wings, whilst, with its feet, it at the same
time clings to and scratches the face of the cliff.
Thus it partly hovers in the air, and partly keeps
itself in position with its feet, but more with the tail
which is fanned out and pressed in against the cliff,
like a woodpecker's against the trunk of the tree it
is on. The second way is more curious. The wings,
here, are partly extended, but, instead of being fluttered,
they are pressed close against the sandy wall. Moving
about over this, they seem to feel for every little
inequality into which they can wedge themselves,
and this the bird does, also, with his breast and the
most available part of his body, the tail being fanned
and pressed to the cliff, whilst the feet all the while
are scratching vigorously. In this way a bird will
sometimes crawl, or rather wedge itself, about, over
the pit's face (which, though it may be perpendicular,
or almost so, is yet full of roughnesses and inequalities),
appearing to seek either the most yielding surface to
scratch, or the best place to get fixed into whilst

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328 BIRD WATCHING

scratching ; and, in doing this, it leaves a track on die
sand or gravel which is quite perceptible through the
glasses, and which I believe is made by the strongly
bent-in tail as well as by the feet It thus clings
with wings, tail, and body, whilst scratching, far more
than clinging, with its claws."

" It may be asked what part in all this does the
beak play? In those birds which I have been
just now watching at some twenty paces through
glasses that brought them just under my eyes, and
in bright sunlight, it seemed to play none at all.
It might have been expected that, in thus com-
mencing, the martins would cling with the feet
whilst working with the bill. These have certainly
not done so, nor have they ever been head down-
wards, either now or before. I have not yet seen
a sand-martin in this position, or even approaching
to it The tail, which is made to play so great a
part, would here lose much of its efficacy, but I do
not at all think that they never do hang like this.
Within certain wide limits, birds, in my experience,
act, not uniformly, but with great variety. Probably,
with longer watching, I should have seen this attitude,
and, also, the bill used as well as the feet Whether
it is used or not in the first commencement of an
excavation, it certainly is — in the way I have de-
scribed — during the later stages."

" I notice again this morning a particular hole, only
about an inch deep, and at the bottom of which there
is a large stone, naturally imbedded in the sand. No
birds are now working at this, but, on the last occa-
sion, one was attacked several times in succession,
whilst doing so, by another. This seems as though

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BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC 329

the one bird of a pair had thought the place unsuit-
able on account of the stone, and not allowed the
other to work there. Thus delicately are matrimonial
teachings conveyed amongst birds. Not one unkind
word did I hear upon either side."

" Whilst watching these sand-martins, a pretty little
quadrupedal picture was also presented to me. A
rabbit, the mother of three, came with them all from
her burrow, which was near the top of the pit where
it joined the fields on one side, and couched there,
delicately, in the morning sunshine. The young ones
flung themselves, all three, on their backs, and,
wedging themselves under her, two of them took their
breakfast in this position. The third one, however,
having tried in vain to get properly under her chest,
made a detour, and then took her in the flank in
ordinary formation, and with successful results. To
see this with the warm, bright sand as a background,
and the swallows flying round ! Lying dozing in the
morning one may have pretty dreams, but they are
not often prettier than this. Blue sky, too, though
it is England, and in the depth of spring ! "

I have spoken of blackbirds bringing materials
thirty-one times to the nest in the course of three
hours, but this is very slow work, and would be, even
if both birds were to bring them instead of only one.
Comparatively, I mean, and the bird that I am taking
as a standard of comparison is the great crested grebe.
In fifty minutes a pair of these that I watched had
brought between them one hundred cargoes of weed,
some so large that the head of the bird carrying them
was almost hidden, and some trailing on the water
for a considerable way behind. Each bird dives and

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330 BIRD WATCHING

comes up with its green, shining burden, with which
it at once swims to the great heap of similar material
which both have collected, and which projects a few
inches above the water, at but a short distance from
the bank. The male is, if possible, more earnest and
indefatigable in the great work than even the female,
and, sometimes, he will work for a little alone, whilst
she is resting. Yet, with all this, it is apparent, at
once, that she is the more effective of the two, in her
actual workmanship. She dives more quickly, and
comes up each time with a larger load, so large, some-
times, that her head is pulled right back as she drags
it along the surface of the water. She places it, too,
— if this is not fancy — a little more deftly and quickly,
showing in everything a higher degree of professional
skill, though her colleague, besides being second only
to herself in this, seems, as I say, to glow with a more
ardent enthusiasm.

Huge as the mass of weeds is, which constitutes
the nest of these birds, it is collected by them in
an astonishingly short space of time; how short,
I am not quite sure about, but this I can positively
say, that whereas on a certain morning I could
see no trace of it above the surface of the water,
on the morning after this it was to all intents
and purposes finished, though the male bird, alone,
once added very slightly to it, not occupying more
than a few minutes in so doing. As to this, how-
ever, it can be said, in a certain sense, that the nest
never is finished, or, at any rate, not till after the
female has begun to lay her eggs. Morning after
morning the male brings weeds to the heap that his
partner is sitting on, but as I had to leave early in

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BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 331

this stage of the bird's domestic history, I cannot
tell for how long he continues to do this. Probably,
as in the case of the shag, and also, I believe, the
moor-hen, the nest is added to during the whole time
that the birds make use of it A nest, however, may
properly be considered finished from the time that
it is en etat to receive the eggs and the sitting bird,
and according to this, these two grebes must have
built theirs between about 8.30 A.M. on one day and
6 A.M. on the next Now, in my experience, these
birds only work during the early morning, from dawn
or thereabouts, up to about 8 or 9. Possibly they
may begin again in the evening, or work at night,
but I never saw them building, or even (before it
was finished) near the nest, at any later time of the
day. That the nest I speak of was not begun till
after 6.30 A.M. on the one day, is practically certain,
for up to that time the birds were building another
one, so that unless, as I say, they worked on the
evening of that day, or in the night-time, they must
have begun and finished it in one morning, between
dawn (as we may suppose) and 8 o'clock — and this
is what I believe. If so, it seems a remarkable feat,
but the swiftness with which they dive and swim up
with their cargoes, and the bulk of weeds which these
represent makes me think it possible, though I must
confess that all the work which I actually saw on
the morning in question made little perceptible differ-
ence in the size of the heap that was already there
on my arrival.

Like an iceberg, the great mass of the nest is
beneath the surface of the water. It seems to be
woven amongst the stems of growing weeds or other

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332 BIRD WATCHING

aquatic plants, but I have noticed in it (indeed, I
have seen the birds placing and carrying them)
water-logged sticks of some size, one end of which
is fixed amongst the mass, whilst the other sinks
down into the mud, and the tangle that may
spring from it Such sticks must act as so many
anchors, and may, perhaps, be the chief means
by which the nest is kept stationary. To judge
by the two birds which I particularly watched,
the great crested grebe has the habit of building
several nests, and, besides this, the male makes a
small platform of weeds just off the edge of the
bank, and near to the nest Sometimes he seems
in doubt whether to take his weeds to the nest or
the platform, and in this hesitation, and in the
building of more than one nest, we may, perhaps,
see the origin of the latter structure. With regard
to this, and some other points which seemed to me
of interest, I may refer to a paper of mine which has
lately appeared in the Zoologist* In this I give a
minute account of the nest-building and some other
habits of these birds, as illustrated by a pair which
I watched very closely; and I will here record my
conviction that there is more to be learnt by such
watching of any one species, or even any one
individual bird, than in the killing or robbing of
thousands.

When I say this, it is not only of the interest
that there is in a creature's ways and habits that I
am thinking, but also of the light that these may, at
any moment, throw upon its descent and affinities —
upon all those questions and subjects which are
* May 1 901.

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BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 333

suggested by the word "evolution" and the names
of Darwin and Wallace. To have a true classifi-
catory system seems to be, now, the grand ideal of
the naturalist, and this, I suppose, must be called
a high one, though it is wonderful how, in some
modern works, the soul of it has been taken out of
the body, so that all has become dull and pedantic
again, though a flight of stairs higher up than some
fifty years ago. Thus can a matter seem rich or poor
as one or another treats of it But habits and
instincts are as strongly inherited as structure, so
that, as it appears to me, the study of life is, even
from the orthodox scientific point of view, as impor-
tant as the study of death. Yet it is death that
most zoologists (as they call themselves) really revel
in, and, though they may not say so, one cannot
help feeling that they are a great deal happier and
more comfortable dissecting a body in their study
than studying a life out-of-doors.

Even admitting that both ways of acquiring know-
ledge are equally efficacious and legitimate, yet this
is very clear, that the destruction of any species ends
both, in regard to it We can no more dissect the
great auk or the dodo (or blow their eggs) now than
we can observe their habits. Thus it is not only
beauty, but knowledge also— -how great and how
varied who can say? — that is being every day
drained out of the world, and against this there is,
as it seems to me, an insufficient protest on the part
of scientific men as a body. They care too little
about it When they think of birds or beasts, it is
under glass cases in museums that their mind's eye
sees them, and if there is only a specimen — nay, a

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334 BIRD WATCHING

bone or a feather — in one of these, it is to them as
though a nation had been saved. More, if only a
specimen, or a bone or feather, can be got for a
museum in which they are interested, for the sake
of it such nation may perish, and of this spirit we
have only lately had a salient example. In their
writings, these serenities are accustomed to speak
calmly of the approaching extinction of this or that
more or less lovely or interesting creature — say, for
instance, the lyre-bird of Australia — if, "happily,"
such and such a museum has been supplied, or if
Professor somebody has ascertained this or that in
regard to it; or professors and the public generally
are exhorted to obtain such supplies or such in-
formation "before the end comes."

"Before the end comes l M Every effort should be
exhausted, every nerve strained, to avert such end,
which, in nine cases out of ten, could be averted if
the requisite measures were taken. This way of
writing, however, is not calculated to further such
efforts, or to hasten the taking of such measures.
Indifference, at least with regard to the greater evil,
is but too clearly indicated, and to this indifference
the life of species after species is sacrificed.

No one, of course, supposes that the opinions or
emotions of a scientific body (and in this I mean to
include more than the term strictly covers) would
exercise any influence on money - seeking men or
brainless and heartless women; but they might on that
great army of collectors who, thinking all the while
that they are in some way doing good and helping
science, keep sweeping countless thousands of birds,
beasts, eggs, and insects out of existence. Alas for

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BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 335

these amiable basilisks, these busy little man-shaped
rinderpests, who kill so well-meaningly and hate the
very breath of life without ever once knowing it ! if
they had devoted their whole lives to picking pockets,
or even to being politicians, they would have done, at
the end of them, less harm — far, far less harm — in the
world than they are now every day doing. Every
day, through them, some specific life that is, or was,
of more value than all their individual ones put
together, is getting scarcer, or ceasing to be. For,
surely, a beautiful butterfly, say, that, for all time,
charms — and raises by charming — some number of
those who see it, does more good on this earth than
any single man or woman, who, "departing," leaves no
"footprints on the sands of time." Homer, for in-
stance, has left his " Iliad " and " Odyssey," and these
have been, and still are, mighty in their effects. But
let them once perish, and Homer will be caught up
and overtaken by almost any bird or butterfly — even
a brown one. Or, if Homer will not, assuredly many
an English poet-laureate will be, or has been already
(Pye, for instance), though his volumes in the British
Museum are safe as consols. If there be any truth
in this reflection, it should tend to make us a little
less conceited than we are. Yet what is a little in
such a matter ? — " Oh, reform it altogether."

For myself, I must confess that I once belonged
to this great, poor army of killers, though, happily,
a bad shot, a most yfctigable collector, and a poor,
half-hearted bungler, generally. But now that I have
watched birds closely, the killing of them seems to
me as something monstrous and horrible; and, for
every one that I have shot, or even only shot at

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336 BIRD WATCHING

and missed, I hate myself with an increasing hatred.
I am convinced that this most excellent result might
be arrived at by numbers and numbers of others, if
they would only begin to do the same; for the pleasure
that belongs to observation and inference is, really, far
greater than that which attends any kind of skill or
dexterity, even when death and pain add their zest
to the latter. Let anyone who has an eye and a
brain (but especially the latter), lay down the gun
and take up the glasses for a week, a day, even for
an hour, if he is lucky, and he will never wish to
change back again. He will soon come to regard
the killing of birds as not only brutal, but dreadfully
silly, and his gun and cartridges, once so dear, will
be to him, hereafter, as the toys of childhood are to
the grown man.

Nor will the good effect stop here. Birds are
but a part of the life on this our earth, and the
hatred of destruction, once kindled by them, will,
like the ripples made by a stone flung into the
water, extend outwards through the whole animal
and vegetable kingdom till it include, at last, man
himself— yes, even the Chinese. Unfortunately, long
before anything of this kind is likely to happen, all
birds, except poultry, and, perhaps, a lingering
sparrow or two, will have been destroyed. This
seems a cheerless prospect, but, as usual (to write like
an optimist), it has its brighter side. Women will then
be no longer able to wear hats, to adorn which the
most beautifol of earth's creatures have been ruthlessly
slaughtered, and, therefore, faith in them will begin
once more to revive. Faith in woman, we know, is a
very important thing. A nation that has once lost it

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BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC 337

must either get it again, or go rapidly downhill. How
much better, therefore, to get it again !

I had meant, in this last chapter, besides touching
a little more fully on some points to which I have
here and there referred, to say something about the
heron, nightjar, cuckoo, barn-owl, wagtail, and a few
other birds ; but I have managed so clumsily that I
now find myself at the furthest possible limit of space,
without having left myself room either for the one or
the other. With regard to the nightjar, I have kept
an observational diary on the nesting habits of a pair
of these birds, which was published in the Zoologist
for, I think, September 1899. From this I had
intended to quote, as in the case of the great plover,
but it is too late to begin now. All these birds,
therefore, must wait a little, but I will not forget
them should I ever write another book of this kind.

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INDEX

Animals, figures of, in heraldry
may come down from savage
times, 102 ; teach meaning of our
high terminology, no; word
"love" properly used in con-
nection with, no; gregarious,
thought-transference more likely
in, 222 ; careful observation of,
advisable, 223 ; slaughter of, 224

Authority, no attention to be paid
to, 248

Barn-owl, must wait a little,
336

Birds, great range of vision of most,
etc., 24, 25 ; aerial fighting of,
sometimes deceptive, 35 ; nesting
habits of, must follow general
habits, 48 ; will vary habits
suddenly, 48. Instinct of feign-
ing injury possessed by some, 59 ;
suggested origin of, 63, 64.
Pugnacity of mingled with
timidity, 74, 75, 76 ; nervous
or frenzied movements as aids to
courage in, and leading to sexual
display of plumage by, 76, 77,
78, 79 ; association of three, 82,
&3» °5» 9<>; sexual feelings of,
not always quite dormant in
winter, 86, 87, 89 ; sportings of,
may be selected, 89 ; fighting of,
tendency to become formal, 109 ;
frequent difficulty in distinguish-
ing male and female of, 112;
slaughter of, each year, and con-
sequent retardation of knowledge
as to, 126; power of ejecting
excrement to distance possessed
by some, and suggested signific-
ance of this, 131, 132; can "bring
all heaven before our eyes," 143 ;
female not always coy in court-
ship, 146 ; wings of, wnen opened

in diving show feet are little used,
148; power of flight in aquatic, how
lost or retained, 151, 152; webbed
foot of aquatic, how obtained, 160,
161 ; possible relation between
opening bill and colour of gular
region, 170; sea, disparity in
time of laying of, 183; watching of
at straw-stack, 199 etseq. Attempt
to catch at, 200, 201 ; feeding at,
204 ; sudden simultaneous flights
of small, from, and discussion of,
201, 210, 211, 212, 213, 216,
217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222,
223 ; fighting of small, at, 208.
Self-reliance of, 208, 225 ; most
timid may be least liable to
change, 226 ; wariness combined
with boldness in, 226; various,
behaving like tree-creepers, 236 ;
origin of some strange actions of
foreign, possibly to he traced in
our own, 256 ; song of, founded
on call, etc., notes in analogy
with plumage, 310, 311 ; corre-
spondence between call, etc,
notes and song of, 3x2 ; matri-
monial teachings of, conveyed
delicately, 328 ; more knowledge
of, gained by watching one than
by killing or robbing thousands,
332 ; killing of, silly as well as
brutal, 3 j6 ; total destruction of,
approaching, 536 ; hatred of de-
struction of, might extend to man,
336
Blackbird, chariness of fighting
sometimes shown by male, 76;
pugnacity of hen, 76 ; at straw-
stack, 199-204; hen fighting
with starling, 204; a charming
nest-builder, 301 ; nest-building
of, described, 301, 302, 303,
304. Nest plastered with mud,

338

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INDEX

339

304; suggested origin of this
habit, 304, 305 ; and future de-
velopment of, 305, 306. Habit of
plastering of, seldom alluded to,
307; nest, how differing from
that of thrush, 304; male does
not sing during nest - building,
307 ; song of, unjustly rated, 312

Blackcap, song of, how differing
from nightingale's, 312

Blackcock, readiness to avoid a
conflict shown by male, 75

Brambling, at straw-stack, 199,
202 ; beauty of, 202, 203

Bullfinch, a bud-eater, 249 ; feeding
on elms with blue-tit, 249 ; acro-
batism of, 249, 250; awkward-
ness of, a la Harpagon, 250;
manner of securing buds, 250;
attacks blue-tit, 250 ; an example
of sexual selection acting in two
directions, 318

Bunting, at straw-stack, 199

Caress, a possible origin of the,
192

Carnage, difficulty in conjuring up
scenes of, nowadays, 135

Chaffinch, combats between the
hens whilst collecting materials
for the nest, 105. At straw-stacks
in winter, 199, 201 ; numbers of,
predominate, 208. Pugnacity of,
and manner of fighting, 208, 209,
210 ; acting like fly-catcher, 247 ;
an example of sexual selection
acting in two directions, 318

Chinese, a recipe to dislike killing
of, 336 .

Collectors, immense harm done by,

334

Coot, diving of, 158, 159 ; in
flocks in winter, 160. Manner
of feeding of, 159 ; a better
diver than the moor-hen, 160;
lobes of toes, how possibly ac-
quired, 160, 161

Cormorants (su also Shag), hop in
courtship and for convenience,
49 ; then* power of ejecting ex-
crements to distance, 131 ; nest
of, 131 ; excelled by shag in

diving, 153; popular idea of,
163 ; evil-looking appearance of,
163 ; Longfellows lines on, 164 ;
Milton in connection with, 164,
165 ; similarity to shag in habits,
etc., 165, 166
Creature, when observed varying,
dubbed new species or variety,
229
Cuckoo, must wait a little, 336
Curlew, peculiarities of, 139; resem-
blance to ibis, 139 ; an opposite
bird, 140; inconspicuous when
on ground, 140 ; conspicuous, by
contrast, in flight, 140; flight,
ordinary and nuptial, of, 141 ;
note of, 141, 142 ; its connection
with the prophet Jeremiah, 141

Dabchick, sporting of three to-
gether, with suggested explana-
tion of, 87, 88, 89; probable way
of fighting, 88 ; can fly seriously,
149 ; his manners of diving, etc.,
154, 155, 156 ; and claims to a
tail, 156

Darwin, sexual selection as con-
ceived by, 25; his comment on
Bate's account of humming-bird
destroyed by spider, 52; his
theory that biros can admire,
255; origin of language, his
view as to the, 289

Eider-duck, courting note or male,
142 ; suggestions, etc., raised by,
142, 143 ; difficult to locate, 143.
The poetry of the family, 143;
female pleasing, 144 ; beauty of
male, 144. Courting actions of
male, 144, 145 ; and of female,

145. Female active agent in being
wooed, 144 ; demonstrations of
female between two males, 145 ;
males mobbing females politely,
145 ; males, combats between,
145 ; dive as a relaxation, 145 ;
choice and dismissal of suitors by
female, 146 ; advances of female
declined by male, 146; female
not coy, 146 ; nesting habits of,

146, 147; male sitting inland,

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34©

INDEX

147 ; charm of watching, etc,
147, 148; appearance of, under
water, 148, 149

Goldfinch, solitary at straw-stack,
203; beauty of, rivalling bram-
bungs, 203 ; manner of feeding
of, 203

Great Auk, flight, how lost by, 151

Great Crested Grebe, manner of
fighting of, 150; various ways of
diving of, 161 ; grace of, 161,
162 ; nest-building of, 329, 330,
331, 332 ; habit of building plat-
form of male, 331, 332

Great Plover, haunts of, 4 ; manner
of sitting, 4. Fanciful resemblance
to Don Quixote, 4, 5, 18 ; and to
the Baron of Bnidwardine, 4, 5,
2a Odd actions of, 5, 6 ; chase
of moths, etc, by, 6, 7,8. Autumn
dances of, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,
15; suggested motive for, 15.
Wailing notes or "clamour" of,
10; ordinary flying note of, 10;
nuptial or courting antics of, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20; an old-
fashioned bird, 16

Great Green Woodpecker, spiral
ascent of trunk, 243 ; assisted by
tail, 243; can descend trunk
backwards, 244

Greenfinch, at straw-stack in winter,
199, 201 ; feeding within three
feet, 201, 202 ; manner of feed-
ing, 202; manner of fighting,
210. Feeding on seeds of exotic
fir, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235;
manner of loosening the seeds,
231, 232, 233, 235, 2j6 ; curious
noise made with beak m so doing,
231, 232, 233; and with wings
on the fir-needles, 234. An ex-
ample of sexual selection acting
in two directions, 318

Guillemots, diving of, 152; ar-
rangement of, on ledge, 182, 183 ;
disparity in time of laying, 183 ;
affectionate conduct of paired
birds, 183, 184; attention paid
to young, 184 ; feeding of young,
184, 185, 189. Incubate with

face turned to cliff, 185; sug-
gested explanation of this, 185.
Lethargy of chicks, 186. Fish
carried to young in beak, 186;
and are often headless, 186, 188 ;
held lengthways, 187. Coquetry
with fish, 187, 188 ; quarrelling
of married birds with fish, 180,
189; birds with fish attacked, etc.,
189, 19a Combats, frequency
and character of, 190 ; suggested
explanation of, 19a Preening
and helping to clean each others
feet, 191, 192; fighting, usual
cause of, 192; manner of, 192,
193 > & flght on the brink, 193 ;
will fight whilst incubating, 193,
194; no respect paid to incu-
bating birds, 194; management
of egg during incubation, 194;
possible trace of lost nest-building
instinct, 195 ; attitudes assumed,
191;; resemblance to human
beings, 195, 196; stones pro-
cured and swallowed, 196; life
on a guillemot ledge, notes of,
196, 197, 198

Guillemot, Black, way of diving,
148; appearance under water,
148; appearance and character,
149 ; the dabchick of ocean, 148 ;
a fair flier, 149 ; manner of fight-
ing, 149, 150; and of bathing,
171

Gulls, Black-backed, best watched
on island where they breed, 96 ;
arrangement of, etc, on the
gullery, 97 ; nuptial habits, antics,
etc, 97, 98, in, 112; nest-
building of, 103, 104, 105 ; fight-
ing of females when collecting
materials for the nest, 104, 105 ;
fighting of males, 105, 106, 107 ;
a gull melodrama, 105, 106;
fighting of two causing excite-
ment amongst others, 107 ; fight-
ing not specialised, 108; im-
portunity of female, 112; larger
size of male, 1 13 ; persecution of,
by Arctic skua, 113, 114, 115;
habit of forcing each other or
other gulls to disgorge fish in-

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INDEX

34i

cipient, 118, 119; come near to
attacking one, on one's approach-
ing their nest, 121 ; mode of
attack ineffective, 122
Gulls, Herring, fighting of, 108,
109 ; power of retaining a mental
image, no; curious behaviour
of a pair, no, in; habit of
forcing each other or other gulls
to disgorge fish incipient, 118,
119; feed young by disgorging
fish, 119, 120; disgorge fish for
each other, 119, 120

Habits, variations of, more inter-
esting than of structure, 228;
may be marked in transitu,
229 ; plasticity of, 48
Hare, disturbing rooks, 227
Hate, oneself, a good way to,

335
Hedge-sparrow, at straw-stacks in

winter, 201, 202
Heine, allusion of to the nightingale,

Heron, must wait a little, 337

Herring, going a progress twice,
116. Head absent in those dis-
gorged by great skua for its
young, 116, 117; possible ex-
planations of this, 117,118. Pro-
fusion of, brought by great skua
for its young, 118

Homer, may be caught up by a
butterfly, 335

Hooded Crow, flying with peewits,
27, 28 ; frolicking or skirmishing
with raven, 137 ; curious antics
of, 137, 138 ; flying with rooks,
296 ; consorting with rooks in
the fields, 296; may sometimes
roost with rooks, 296; when
with rooks acts as though of the
same species, 296

Hudson, Mr, views of, referred to,
79, S°» **

Kestrel, importunity of female,

112
Kittiwakes, habit of forcing each

other or other gulls to disgorge

fish incipient, 118; will turn to
bay and drive off Arctic skua,
128; roosting in extraordinary
numbers, 197, 198

Language, idea as to origin of,
suggested by rooks, 288, 289

Larks (see Skylark)

Life, study of, as important as that
of death, 332

Linnet, an example of sexual selec-
tion acting in two directions, 318

Lyre-bird, an example of a highly
adorned species which is also
musical, 334

Merganser, manner of diving of,

153, 154

Meves, M., on cause of bleating in
the snipe, 53

Moor-hen, becoming a partridge or
plover, 48 ; an orchestra of pe-
culiar brazen instruments, 57.
Manner of diving of, 156, IJ7,
158 ; habit of, may be becoming
established, 158 ; and may differ in
different localities, 158. Browses
grass, 227 ; wariness of, 226 ;
power of drawing an inference,
227 ; independent spirit and
originality, 227, 228

Naturalist in La Plata, re-
ferred to, 79, 80, 81

Nightingale, male not singing much
during nest-building, 307; song
of, a vehicle of hatred and rivalry,
308. Conduct of rival males, 308,
309; similar to wheatears, jo8.
Conduct of female during combats
of rival males, 309, 310 ; croaking
notes of, 310. Song probably
founded on these, 310; which
would account for its low key,
312 ; how differing from that of
thrush, blackcap, skylark, etc.,
312 ; does not include every ex-
cellence, 312; frequent pauses
in, 312 ; when at its best, 313 ;

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342

INDEX

effect of, on Heine, 313 ; and on
others, 313 ; sometimes mistaken
for that of thrush, 313, 314; by
day not more noticed than that
of lark or thrush, 314 ; some of
effect of due to night and silence,
314, 315. Sobriety of colouring
exaggerated, 316; brightness of
tail, 316; ruddy patch on, 316,
317; glossy appearance of, 317,
318 ; example of a bird doubly
distinguished, 317; may begetting
brighter, 318 ; pictures of, in
natural history books, 318; real
appearance of, 319 ; sings without
pose, 319 ; and sometimes on
ground, 319 ; Milton fortunately
not familiar with, 319; female
alone builds nest, 319 ; is attended
by male, 319

Nightjar, sound with the wings
made by, 52 ; movements of, to
protect young, 60, 61 ; seem re-
sult of nervous shock or mental
disturbance, 61 ; twitching of
muscles of throat of, 179; must
wait a little, 337

Night-raven, possible origin of idea
of, 288

Nut-hatch, feeding on seeds of exotic
fir, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235;
manner of loosening the seeds
of, 233, 235

Organisms, plasticity of, 48
Ostrich, courting or nuptial antics

of male, 169 ; incubation shared

by the sexes, 169

Partridge, movements of, to pro-
tect young, 60, 61. At straw-
stack, 199, 205 ; coming down
to, on a winter morning, 205.
Soft sounds made bv, 205
Peacocks, shot in India, 206
Peewit, cry of, 25; somersaults
thrown by, 26 ; sound made
with wings, 27; bridal dances
of, 26, 27 ; flying with hooded
crow, 27, 28. Attacking hen

pheasant, 27 ; and moor-hen, 28.
Call-note on ground, 28, 29, 30;
sporting of two, 30, 31 ; upward
sweep m flight, 31, 32; under-
studying of one another, 32;
aerial combats possible, 33, 42 ;
aerial evolutions, remarks on, 33,
34; feigning broken wing not
observed, 66 ; three flying to-
gether, remarks on, etc, 83, 84,
85, 86 ; roll over of compared
with that of raven, 263

Penguins, flight, how lost by, 151 ;
manner of diving of, 152

People, mental approach of some,
223; not explained by such
terms as insight, intuition, per-
ception, affinity, etc., 223

+nuij, Greek idea of the, 219;
brought to mind by watching
birds, 220, 221, 294

Pheasants, timidity shown by males
in fighting, 75 ; at straw-stack in
winter, 199, 205 ; beauty of male,
206. Curious low notes and pip.
ing sounds of, 207 ; not quite so
soft as those of partridges, 207.
Timidity of, tempered t>y judg-
ment and individual tempera-
ment, 207 ; conduct of, when
small birds fly off, 207, 208;
males agree together, feeding,
208 ; roosting of dove-tailing with
last flight home of rooks, 261,
262 ; trying to look like a soldier,
283, 284 ; dull plumage of hen
representing that of progenitor of
the family, 310, 311

Pigeons, twitching of muscles of
throat of, 180

Puffin, diving of, 152 ; disparity in
time of laving, 183 ; carrying fish
crosswise in beak, 187

Rabbit, with young in sandpit,

3*8> 329
Ravens, molested by gulls, 129 ; at
first not impressed by, 129 ;
peculiar croak of, 130 ; appear-
ance, etc, of nest of, 130; be-
haviour of young in nest, 130,

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343

131 ; attempts to see feed young
unsuccessful, 132; add no effect
to precipice, 134 ; plumage of,
134; look black at a little dis-
tance, 134; ordinary flight not
majestic, 134 ; shape of wings of,
x 34> 135 5 effect of number of,
over battlefield, 135. Curious
doubtful if these are nuptial, 138 ;
antics in the air of, 136, 137.
Skirmishing with gulls, 137 ; skir-
mishing or frolicking with hooded
crow, 137; devoted guardians of
young, 138; cunning plan adopted

py» 138, 139

Raven Mother, the real one, 133 ;
appearance and behaviour of,

133. 134

Razorbills, manner, etc, of diving
of, 151, 152 ; fish, how carried in
beak by, 187

Redshanks, handsomer flying than
when on ground, 23, 24 ; courting
actions of male, 24. Aerial and
aquatic combats of, 36, 37; at
first mistaken as to nature of
these, 37

Richardson's Skua, objected to as a
title, 61

Ring Plover, nuptial flight of, 21,
22 ; courting actions of male on
ground, 22, 23

Robin, becoming wagtail or stilt-
walker, 48 ; how it may develop
in the future, 229; occasional
aquatic habits of, out of character,
229, 230 ; has two figures, 230 ;
a part of most landscapes, 230,
211 ; looks different in different
puces, 231 ; an example of sexual
selection acting in two directions

Rooks, importunity of female, 112 ;
simultaneous flights, etc., of, 210,
292, 293, 294 ; winter rookery or
roosting-place of, 258, 259, 278,
280 ; crowd of better than crowd
of men, 259; aerial evolutions,
sports, gambols, manoeuvres, etc,
of, 259, 260, 262, 263, 264, 265,
268, 269, 270, 271, 280, 20c;
peculiar burring note of, 200,
282, 283 ; powers of flight pos-

sessed by, 260, 271 ; flight full
of effects, 271 ; how associated
with starlings, 261 ; chirruppy or
croodling note of, 261, 268, 269 ;
last flight of, dove-tailing with
roosting of pheasants, 261, 262 ;
roll over of, compared with that
of ravens, 263 ; two great as-
semblages of, manoeuvring* and
different conduct of, 262, 264,
265 ; difficulty of supposing that
they are led, 213, 265, 266 ; if led,
should be so habitually, 266, 267 ;
evidence against theory of leader-
ship, 267, 268, 269, 270, 284,
285 ; the caw the business note
of, 268 ; two bands flying at dif-
ferent elevations, 270; flight of,
at great elevation different to
usual flight, 270, 271 ; conclusion
against theory of leadership, 271,
273 ; supposed to employ sentinels,
271 ; evidence as to and con-
clusion against their doing so,
272, 273 ; vast assemblage of,
274, 277, 278 ; fighting of, 274,
*75» 276, 277; disturbed by
hare, 277 ; lullaby of, 278, 281 ;
return of, to winter rookery in
evening, 274, 277, 278, 280, 281,
292, 294, 295, 296, 297, 208,
299 ; various cries of, 281, 283,
284, 286, 288, 291, 292, 299.
300. Whishing noise made by,
281, 282, 295 ; doubt as to how
produced, 282. " Burring" note

of, 282, 283; morning flight of,
from winter rookery, 283, 284,
285, 292 ; voice of, pleasing and
expressive, 283; talk kind of
Chinese, 284; tits flying with,
284; some staying back after
general flight out, 285; actions
of, governed by two leading prin-
ciples, 285 ; unknown force sug-
gested by movements of, 285,
286 ; some movements of, may be
due to thought-transference or
collective thinking, 287 ; may be
origin of the night-raven, 287,
288; origin of language sug-
gested by, 288, 289; zones o

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344

INDEX

sound and silence amongst, 289,
390; notes of, best described
as talking, 291 ; method of
yawning of, 291, 292; +1*1),
the idea of the, applied to, 294 ;
psychical state of during the
jUimktkry 295 ; wonderful scene
of excitement amongst, 294, 295,
296. Found dead in plantation,

295, 296; possible reason and
theory of keeper in regard to this,

296. Non-collision of wonderful,
295 ; consort with hooded crows
in fields, 296 ; resembling storm-
cloud and rain, 298; seem as
though evolving a language, 299 ;
powers of modulation and in-
flexion in voice of, 299 ; voice of,
unjustly spoken of, 299 ; vocabu-
lary of notes of, 299, 300

Rules, to be guided by in watching
birds, 248, 249

Sand-martins, manner of excavat-
ing tunnels, 323, 326, 327, 328 ;
both sexes excavate, 323, 324.
Sometimes work socially, 324;
but not as do insects, 324.
Make simultaneous flights from
cliff, 324, 325 ; sometimes fight
fiercely, 325 ; are victimised by
sparrows and tree-sparrows, 325 ;
length of their tunnels, 326

Scientific men, indifference of, to
extermination, 333

Sexual selection, as conceived by
Darwin, 25 ; antics, etc., not in
the nature of display, no evidence
against, 79 ; as having modified
some birds both in voice and
plumage, 318

Shags {see also Cormorant), power
of ejecting excrement to distance
possessed by, 131 ; how useful to
the bird, 131, 132; nest of, iji.
Manner of diving of, 153 ; dive
uniformly, 156 ; amiable character
of, 163, 165 ; courtship, love-
making of, etc, 166, 167, 168,
169, 170; courting antics like
those of the ostrich, but with

significant difference, 169, 170;
habit of opening and shutting bill
at each other, 170, 176, 177;
bathing of, 170; gargoyle idylls
of, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176,
177, 178, 179, 180, 181 ; tendency
of, to ornament nest, 174, 175,
176 ; change on the nest of, 175,
176, 177 ; feeding the young,
177, 178, 179; twitching muscles
of the throat, 179, 180 ; char-
acter, etc, of the young, 180;
guarding the nest and affairs of
honour, 181, 182; manner of
fighting, 181
Skua, Arctic, diverting attention
from eggs or young, 61 ; per-
secutes gulls, 113, 114, 127; is
safe from retributive justice, 1 14 ;
said only to eat fish robbed from
gulls, 114; probability that it
would feed by piracy exclusively,
115; not seen stooping on fish
in water, 115 ; disgorge fish for
each other, 120, 121 ; attacks
those approaching its nest, 121 ;
swoop made in silence, 121 ;
mode of attack, 122, 123; blow
with feet ineffective, 123; both
birds often attack, but more
usually only one, 125. Combines
fraud with force, 125 ; theory as
to this, 125. Polymorphism of,

126, 127 ; sexual selection sug-
gested as an explanation, 120,

127. Seems bolder and more
aggressive than the great skua,

127 ; driven off by kittiwake, 127,

128 ; feared more by gulls than
the great skua, 128 ; extreme
boldness of, 139; chased by
curlews, 139

Skua, Great, nuptial habits, antics,
etc, 98, 99, 101, 102; powers
of flight, 99 ; flight seen to best
advantage at sea, 99, 100 ; nest,
103 ; said only to eat fish robbed
from gulls, and secured in mid-
air, 1 14 ; would probably feed by
piracy exclusively, 115; not seen
stooping on fish in water, 115;
young fed entirely on disgorged

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345

herrings, 115; nesting habits
difficult to observe, 115, 116;
probably eats heads of herrings
disgorged for young, 117, 1x8 ;
has no reason to vary diet during
breeding-season, as asserted, 1 18 ;
suggested origin of its specialised
method of Feeding, 118, 119;
attacks those approaching its
nest, 121 ; makes swoop in
silence, but utters cry whilst
circling between each, 121 ; blow
with feet ineffective, 122 ; attacks
almost indefinitely, 122 ; mode
of attack, 123, 124. Attack made
by both sexes, 124 ; an exception
noted, 124, 125 ; theory in regard
to this, 125. Feared less by gulls
than Arctic skua, 128 ; mobbed
by gulls, 128
Skylarks, aerial combats of, 35,
36 ; impressive hops of male m
courtship, 49; song of, how
differing from the nightingale's,
312 ; effect of if heard at night,

314
Snipe, a familiar example of in-
strumental music during flight,
52 ; modification of tail-feathers
by sexual selection, 53 ; wings
apparent but not real cause of
bleating, 53, 54, 55; different
ways of descending to earth, £3,
55» 5<> » different modes of flight,
54 ; see-saw or " chack-wood "
note, 54, 56 ; swishing of wings,
56; extraordinary notes of, 57.
Tail feathers less modified in
female, and producing a different
bleat, 57; but difference not
great, 57, 58. Individual differ-
ences in bleat, 57, 58 ; flying in
circles, 58 ; bleat best in morning
and evening, 58 ; flight difficult to
follow, 58 ; private allotment in
fields of air, 58 ; bleating of males
against each other, 59 ; bleating
of male and female to each other,
59 ; bleating of one answered
vocally by the other on ground,
59. Extraordinary movements
when alarmed during incubation,

60, 61 ; theory with regard to
these, 63, 64

Sparrows, seize burrows of sand-
martins, 325 ; creditable motives
of, in so doing, 325, 326

Sparrows, Tree, at straw-stack in
winter, 199; seize burrows of
sand-martins, 325

Species, knowledge lost by destruc-
tion of any, 333

Specific life, any, of more value than
most individual ones, 334

Spiders, if they had their Phidiases,

52

Spur-winged Lapwing, curious per-
formances of, 81, 82; suggested
origin of, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87,
88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95

Starlings, acting as fly-catchers, 8,
48 ; and as wood-peckers, 48.
Manner of feeding, 9 ; at straw-
stack in winter, 199, 204, 205 ;
fighting with hen blackbird, 204 ;
fighting with each other, 204,
205. Their simultaneous flights,
210, 214, 215 ; difficulty of ex-
plaining these and suggestions as
to, 214, 215. How associated
with rooks, 261

Stock-doves, their aerial combats,
38, 39 ; arising sometimes out of
the ground-tourney, 41 , 42. Their
ground • tourneys, 39, 40, 41 ;
bowing of fighting birds to each
other, 39, 40, 41; fighting of
male and female, 42, 43 ; court-
ing bow of male to female, 43,
44, 45 ; bowing of female to
male, 43, 44; bow silent or
accompanying note subdued, 45 ;
court on trees or on ground, 45 ;
their nuptial flights in early
morning, 46, 47; make nest in
rabbit-burrows, 47

Structure, slight changes of, not
easy to see, 229

Thought-transference, as pos-
sible explanation of some move-
ments of birds and other animals,

219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 286,

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INDEX

287, 289, 290, 292, 293, 294;
a retarding influence, 222; in
man, may be reversion to more
primitive method of intercom-
munion, 223; may be, in some
ways, superior to speech

Thrush, Song of, how differing from
the nightingale's, 312; mistaken
for the nirfitineale's, 313, 3x4;
effectof if heard at night, 314

Tit, Blue, at straw-stack in winter,
199, 202 ; acts like tree-creeper,
236, 237, 238, 239. Ascends
trunk perpendicularly, 237 ; sug-
gested explanation of this, 242,
243. Descends trunk head down-
wards assisted by wings, 237,
238, 245 ; suggested explanation,
245. His hardiness, 247, 248;
eats buds rather than insects in
them, 248, 249; attacked by
bullfinch, 2 JO ; feeds on catkins
of alder or insects in them, 251,
253 ; his tiring-room and banquet-
ing-hall, 253; drive each other
from catkins of alder, 253 ; flying
with rooks, 284

Tit, Coal, attacks fir-cones, 231 ;
manner of holding them, 251.
Ascends tree-trunks as does blue-
tit, 252

Tits, Long-tailed, nest-building, 320,
321; "chit, chit" note, 320,
321 ; roosting together, 321, 322,
323; returning to roost in same
place, 322, 323 ; their prettiness,
320, 321

Tit, Great, feeding on seeds of
exotic fir, 231, 232, 233, 234,
235 ; manner of loosening the
seeds, 232, 235. Probably eats
seeds of indigenous firs, 252

Tree, old, winter foliage of, 201

Tree-creeper, becoming a fly-catcher,
48. Flies downwards from tree-
trunk, 240; but not invariably,
241 ; suggested origin of the
habit, 241. Spiral ascent not so
general as asserted, 241, 242;
often ascends perpendicularly,
242 ; suggested origin of spiral
ascent, 242, 243. Said never to

descend trunk, 241, 244; but
can descend backwards, 244 ; in-
teresting to watch, 246 ; skill in
using beak, etc, 246 ; sometimes
acts like fly-catcher, 247; his
aesthetic beauty, 247 ; his hardi-
ness, 247
Trogons, shot in Mexico, 206
Turtle-dove, courting of male on
ground or in trees, 50; the
nuptial flight, 50, 51

Wagtail, must wait a little, 337

Warrener, how affected by beauty,
47

Wheatear, combats and displays of
rival males, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70,
71, 72, 73, 74 ; his hopping out
of character, 68; conduct of hen
whilst fought for by rival males,
68, 69, 71, 72, 74, 78 ; chariness
of fighting shown by males, 71,
74. Antics of males not resem-
bling a set display, 77, 78;
attempt to explain these and
other antics of various birds, 74
et seq (to end of chapter). Power
of retaining a mental image, 1 10 ;
conduct of rival males similar to
that of nightingales

Wild Duck, intelligent feigning of
injury to distract attention from
young, 60, 62, 63; suggested
origin of the habit, 63, 64

Willow - warbler, preference for
birch - trees, 253 ; pretty be-
haviour with the catkins of, 253,
254, 255 ; reason for this possibly
aesthetic, 255, 256

Wood-pigeons, courting of female
by male on tree, 45 ; raucous
note after pairing, 46 ; may here-
after lay in rabbit-burrows, 48 ;
courting of female by male on
ground, 48, 49; the clapping of
wings in flight, 51 ; beauty of
nuptial flight, 51, 52; swishing
or beating of wings in flight, 52,
Their simultaneous flights, 210;
suggested explanation as to, 215,
216

Wren, acting like a tree-creeper,

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INDEX

48, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240.
Ascends tree-trunks per^dSu.
k*Iy> 237 K descent oYcWbtful,
23» ; sometimes assisted by wings,
24a Suggestions as to habit and
mode of tree-creeping, 242, 241

nung-bird, 252; examine? pine-

347

needles, 252, 253; his note,
253

Yellow-hammer, at straw-stack
in winter, 199, 201

Zoologists, have been thanato-
hgists, 224 ; prefer death to life,
332, 333

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